BRUSSELS, March 25 (Hina) - The European Parliament said in a statement on Thursday it would discuss Croatia's application for European Union membership at a plenary session on March 31.
BRUSSELS, March 25 (Hina) - The European Parliament said in a statement
on Thursday it would discuss Croatia's application for European Union
membership at a plenary session on March 31.#L#
Last week, the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee adopted
recommendations based on a report by Socialist MP Alexandros Baltas of
Greece.
The proposed recommendations, which very positively assessed Croatia's
progress on its path towards the EU, will serve as a basis for a
discussion at the plenary session next Wednesday.
The document says that the EU membership application represents a
challenge to which Croatia is ready to respond, and that a positive
answer to the application will have great significance for other
countries in Southeast Europe.
The document notes that Croatia has initiated economic and political
reforms with a view to democratising the country and modernising the
economy, and that is has achieved optimistic economic results and made
a significant headway in adjusting domestic legislation to Europe's.
Rapporteur Alexandros Baltas said before the session of the Foreign
Affairs Committee that the basic recommendation from his report was
that membership talks with Croatia should start as soon as possible.
The European Commission, which is preparing an opinion on the Croatian
application, will take into account the opinion of the European
Parliament.
The head of the European Commission mission to Zagreb, Jacques
Wunenburger, has said that the Commission has drafted most of the
opinion, the so-called avis, and that the document could be expected
to be made public after Easter, in the second half of April or at the
beginning of May.
Wunenburger told Reuters news agency in an interview that Croatia
could become an official candidate for EU membership this summer and
that this depended on its cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal
in The Hague.
Croatia has also won the support of German Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder and French Jacques Chirac, who met in Paris on March 16.
"As far as Croatia is concerned, we have given a positive opinion in
principle in anticipation of a report from the European Commission,"
Chirac told a joint press conference after talks with Schroeder.
(Hina) vm