ZAGREB, March 30 (Hina) - The European Commission (EC) might postpone the publication of its opinion on Croatia's European Union membership application, the avis, until it evaluates that positive headway has been made in the
fulfilment of political criteria, notably in cooperation with the war crimes tribunal in The Hague, because it would like to publish a positive avis, the chief of the EC Delegation to Croatia, Jacques Wunenburger, was quoted as saying by Jutarnji list daily of Wednesday.
ZAGREB, March 30 (Hina) - The European Commission (EC) might postpone
the publication of its opinion on Croatia's European Union membership
application, the avis, until it evaluates that positive headway has
been made in the fulfilment of political criteria, notably in
cooperation with the war crimes tribunal in The Hague, because it
would like to publish a positive avis, the chief of the EC Delegation
to Croatia, Jacques Wunenburger, was quoted as saying by Jutarnji list
daily of Wednesday.#L#
If in the next few weeks we fail to agree on a certain number of
issues, the Commission will rather postpone the publication of the
avis until it is in the position to issue a positive one because this
is our objective, Wunenburger said in an interview.
If we see that things are not moving on, our political decision will
most likely be to publish the avis as it is, he said. If it is
established that some issues are still unsolved, it will be decided to
prepare an avis which does not offer a clear conclusion but reports on
the situation as it is, he added.
The EC maintains that it is not rational to publish an opinion unless
every EU member agrees with it, Wunenburger said, adding that the
weakest point is the political opinion on Croatia's cooperation with
the Hague tribunal, namely the fact that this is why Great Britain and
the Netherlands have still not completed the ratification of the
Croatia-EU Stabilisation and Association Agreement.
Cooperation with the Hague tribunal is not irrelevant because if it is
unsatisfactory it means that Croatia does not share the values which
form the very core of European integration, Wunenburger said. He
recalled that Croatia was part of the United Nations and had
contributed to the establishment of the Hague tribunal.
If you don't accept that as a legal obligation, if you don't honour
what you legally committed yourself to, how can you expect of EU
members to believe Croatia on its word when negotiations are under
way, Wunenburger said, pointing out that Croatia's credibility was the
most important aspect of this issue.
He went on to say that Great Britain and the Netherlands were not the
only countries which might have objections to and reservations about
the approval of Croatia's membership application at this moment.
Mentioning the case of fugitive General Ante Gotovina, Wunenburger
said the EC was waiting for the evaluation of the Hague tribunal's
chief prosecutor on this matter. Unless Carla del Ponte says that she
is entirely satisfied with Croatia's cooperation with the tribunal,
the avis will only define the current state of affairs, he was quoted
as saying.
(Hina) ha sb