ZAGREB, Feb 4(Hina) - Swedish Ambassador to Croatia Theolin Sture said on Wednesday it was incorrect that his country had advocated postponing the European Commission's approval of Croatia's European Union membership application, as
Globus weekly says in its latest issue.
ZAGREB, Feb 4(Hina) - Swedish Ambassador to Croatia Theolin Sture said
on Wednesday it was incorrect that his country had advocated
postponing the European Commission's approval of Croatia's European
Union membership application, as Globus weekly says in its latest
issue.#L#
According to Globus, Sweden requested at a meeting of EU leaders that
the decision on Croatia's application be postponed until the summer.
Sweden feels one needs to be cautious because of the ruling Croatian
Democratic Union's dubious political history and wait until the new
government backs its pro-Europe orientation with concrete steps, the
weekly says.
Commenting on the piece, Ambassador Sture told Hina it was based on
wrong information or misunderstanding, which he said could have been
averted had the weekly spoken to the embassy. He added he was
disappointed that a newspaper he considered very good had not checked
facts.
Sture went on to say that when Croatian and Swedish foreign ministers
met in Stockholm on January 27, Sweden's Laila Freivalds told Miomir
Zuzul that her country strongly supported Croatia's EU membership
application and applauded the positive steps the Ivo Sanader Cabinet
had taken with regard to ethnic minorities and respect for human
rights.
Sture said Freivalds reminded Zuzul that Croatia, as all EU
applicants, must meet every political condition required for
admission.
Globus further says in its piece that Sweden has also voiced concern
about Croatia's disregard of international conventions banning the
unsupervised sale of sophisticated weapons. Sweden is unhappy that the
Swedish missiles RBS-15, which were in the possession of the Croatian
Navy, have been found in Belgrade, the weekly says.
Ambassador Sture dismissed these allegations, claiming that Sweden was
very satisfied with how Croatia had assumed responsibility concerning
the missiles.
Commenting on the article, Croatian Foreign Ministry spokesman
Dobroslav Silobrcic told Hina the Ministry had no information about
the allegations made in the piece, and that there had been no
diplomatic signals from Sweden.
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