SANADER: SAA COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER, HAD IT NOT BEEN SACRIFICED FOR PURPOSES OF DAILY POLITICS

ZAGREB, Feb 25 (Hina) - The Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) between Croatia and the EU could have been better if the previous government had not sacrificed it for purposes of daily politics, Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said during question time in parliament on Wednesday.#L# Nenad Stazic of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) asked the prime minister how he intended to convince the governments of Great Britain, Italy and the Netherlands to ratify the SAA considering that Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) deputies did not participate in its ratification in 2001, but walked out of the session. "Much to your joy and the joy of the entire opposition, this government is trusted," Sanader said, adding that HDZ deputies had walked out of the session because they had learned from sources in the former government and the EU in Brussels that the SAA could have been better had it been adopted two months later. The Ivica Racan government forced the completion of negotiations on the SAA so that the then ruling parties could take up better positions ahead of the local elections in May 2001, which was why the SAA was sacrificed for purposes of daily politics, Sanader said. He said that whether the three countries would ratify the SAA did not depend on his statements, but on those countries' assessment of whether Croatia met all conditions for EU membership. He repeated that he was confident that the European Commission would give a positive response to Croatia's membership application when it came to political criteria. (Hina) rml