ZAGREB, Feb 10 (Hina) - Croatia's European Integration Minister Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic and European Commission officials met in Brussels on Monday to discuss the implementation of the Provisional Agreement and the drafting of the
EC's opinion on Croatia's candidacy for EU membership, the Ministry of European Integration said in a statement on Tuesday.
ZAGREB, Feb 10 (Hina) - Croatia's European Integration Minister Kolinda
Grabar Kitarovic and European Commission officials met in Brussels on
Monday to discuss the implementation of the Provisional Agreement and
the drafting of the EC's opinion on Croatia's candidacy for EU
membership, the Ministry of European Integration said in a statement
on Tuesday.#L#
During her working visit to Brussels, the Croatian minister presented
the national program of integration into the EU for 2004.
Grabar Kitarovic and Reinhard Priebe, Director for Western Balkans at
the EC's Directorate-General for External Relations and chairman of
the EC's provisional committee, discussed a number of issues regarding
the implementation of the Provisional Agreement, such as Croatian
sugar exports to the EU and measures which Croatia has been taking to
prevent the mad cow disease, including its ban on the import of cows
from countries where cases of the mad cow disease were reported, reads
the statement.
The Croatian minister advocated the possibility of allowing the export
of Croatian pork products into the EU market.
The minister also presented Croatia's national program for integration
into the EU for 2004.
It was agreed that the next meeting of the provisional committee
should take place in Zagreb on 26 May 2004.
Grabar Kitarovic also held talks with Michael Leigh, Deputy General
Director at the EC's Directorate- General for External Relations and
head of a task force in charge of drawing up the EC's opinion on
Croatia's membership application. The talks addressed current
relations between Croatia and the EU and the drawing up of the EC's
opinion on Croatia's membership application.
Talks with Fabrizio Barbaso, Director-General for Enlargement,
addressed Croatia's progress on the road to full EU membership and its
place in the EU's financial plan for the period 2007-2011, reads the
statement.
The Croatian delegation is satisfied with the talks as Croatia's
progress in meeting membership criteria is positively assessed, the
ministry said.
(Hina) rml