It is very important for Croatia to persist in its plans to join NATO because there are several general political arguments in favour of that, and they apply to the entire region. Croatia has gone a long way towards NATO membership, you should continue on that road which will end in a decision on NATO membership, Scheffer told a group of reporters from Southeast Europe in Brussels.
Asked if Croatia, Macedonia and Albania, which participate in NATO's Membership Action Plan, could expect an invitation to join NATO at the 2008 summit, Scheffer said he did not want to prejudge or rule anything out.
In an interview given to mark the upcoming tenth anniversary of the Dayton peace agreement, Scheffer recalled the issue of runaway general Ante Gotovina, who he said should be transferred to The Hague.
Croatia is making good progress, but there is the problem of General Gotovina, who should be in The Hague, Scheffer said.
Asked whether NATO accepted ICTY Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte's assessment that Croatia is now fully cooperating with the ICTY, Scheffer said he did not want to question del Ponte's assessments, but that the EU too was closely monitoring the developments and that it did not view the process unconditionally. Croatia participates in the Membership Action Plan and when I mention Gotovina, it is because we cannot leave him out when Karadzic and Mladic are mentioned, Scheffer said.
He added that the door to NATO remained open to the entire region and that 2006 would be a critical year for the region.
Speaking about the tenth anniversary of the Dayton peace agreement, Scheffer said that the sides in Bosnia-Herzegovina seemed to have started harmonising their positions on the need for constitutional reforms.
He warned all sides in Kosovo, which soon expects talks on its final status, that NATO would respond strongly to any attempt to use violence for political purposes.