ZAGREB, Feb 2(Hina) - This month Croatian Foreign Minister Miomir Zuzul will visit Brussels, Copenhagen, Dublin, London, Munich, Vienna and The Hague, as part of a tour which is aimed at intensifying diplomatic efforts to bring
Croatia closer to the European Union and NATO.
ZAGREB, Feb 2(Hina) - This month Croatian Foreign Minister Miomir Zuzul
will visit Brussels, Copenhagen, Dublin, London, Munich, Vienna and
The Hague, as part of a tour which is aimed at intensifying diplomatic
efforts to bring Croatia closer to the European Union and NATO.#L#
"The main goals of the tour are to bring Croatia closer to the EU and
NATO and develop bilateral relations with EU countries, which are
unique for each country," Zuzul told Hina on Monday.
Zuzul and Prime Minister Ivo Sanader will attend a conference of the
European People's Party in Brussels, where they will hold a series of
bilateral meetings. A meeting with Italian Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi has been confirmed.
After visiting Brussels, Zuzul travels to Copenhagen on Thursday to
seek Denmark's support to Croatia's EU bid.
On Friday and Saturday the minister will be in Munich, where he will
attend a conference on security. Next week he will travel to Dublin,
London and Berlin.
Croatia enjoys Ireland's understanding on the political front and
there are no outstanding issues between the two countries, Zuzul
said.
Croatia's Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU
has not been ratified by Great Britain and the Netherlands, one of the
most important reasons for that being the issue of cooperation with
the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
Zuzul believes that there is no need for Croatia to "force" the
ratification.
"We want to talk with London so that the ratification does not become
an obstacle (to a positive avis of the EU), because legally (the
ratification) is not an obstacle, but realistically, any EU country
can bloc it," Zuzul said, adding that Croatia hoped that Britain was
moving towards the ratification of the SAA.
"This issue won't be solved with one visit, but we are developing the
dynamics of relations," he said. During February Croatia will
intensify talks with Great Britain and European Integration Minister
Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic will pay a visit to London. It is expected
that Britain's Minister for Europe Dennis McShane will visit Zagreb.
Another issue that is important to Croatia, apart from the
ratification of the SAA, is Britain's continued support in the EU and
NATO, Zuzul said.
This month Zuzul will also visit Austria and the Netherlands for the
same reason. On February 23, regular political talks between the EU
Troika and Croatia are expected to take place. The talks are envisaged
by the SAA, i.e. a provisional agreement which is replacing the SAA
until it goes into force.
Zuzul and Sanader are making the tour after the chief prosecutor of
the UN war crimes tribunal and part of European countries voiced
stronger support for Croatia's admission into the EU and NATO.
Asked to comment on the interview the tribunal's chief prosecutor
Carla Del Ponte gave to Croatian Television on Saturday, Zuzul said
that Del Ponte "has recognised the fact that this government has taken
steps to show that it will cooperate with The Hague without
reservations".
"A certain degree of trust has been established between the Croatian
government and the Office of the Chief
Prosecutor," Zuzul said, adding that the government had already
settled four important issues in relations with the tribunal. Those
are the transfer of relevant documents to General Ante Gotovina's
defence team, maximum depoliticising of the cooperation with the
tribunal, the removal of some limitations regarding access to
witnesses, and the transfer of relevant documents to indictee Pasko
Ljubicic's defence team, the minister said.
(Hina) rml sb