STRASBOURG, April 20 (Hina) - The UN war crimes tribunal's chief prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, has opened the path for a positive opinion of the European Commission (EC) on Croatia's European Union membership application, the European
Commissioner in charge of external relations, Chris Patten, has said.
STRASBOURG, April 20 (Hina) - The UN war crimes tribunal's chief
prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, has opened the path for a positive
opinion of the European Commission (EC) on Croatia's European Union
membership application, the European Commissioner in charge of
external relations, Chris Patten, has said.#L#
The ICTY prosecutor noted that Croatia was now fully cooperating with
the Hague tribunal which made it possible for the Commission to give a
positive opinion, Patten on Tuesday told the European Parliament,
which was informed of the avis immediately after the EC announced it.
In recent months Croatia's cooperation with the tribunal has been much
improved. It is particularly worthy of note that two groups of
indictments involving eight people, both Croats and Bosnian Croats,
were dealt with speedily and without fuss by the Croatian government.
They were transferred to The Hague, Patten said and added that the
question of former General Ante Gotovina was still pending.
We have consulted with Del Ponte and she has convinced us that Croatia
is doing all it could to help locate and transfer him The Hague, the
Commissioner told the European Parliament. In this context, he
stressed the importance of maintaining full cooperation with the
ICTY.
Patten told reporters that the EC would notify EU Foreign Ministers of
the avis on Croatia on Monday. The Council of Ministers is to convene
in Luxembourg.
Next Monday we shall inform the Council of today's decision and I am
sure that the ministers will welcome the decision and approve what the
former and current Croatian governments have done, Patten told a news
conference.
Voicing satisfaction with the avis, Patten congratulated the Croatian
government and expressed gratitude to the former Prime Minister Ivica
Racan and the former Foreign Minister Tonino Picula for the job they
had done to obtain a positive avis.
This is a historic moment for Croatia, Patten said adding that he had
worked with both the former and incumbent governments and admired the
progress they had made.
The European Commissioner in charge of EU enlargement, Guenter
Verheugen, said today's avis was the result of the hard work of the
Croatian government and people. The Croatian people has deserved this,
Verheugen said wishing Croatia the best on its road to the EU.
Commenting on Croatia's economy, he said Croatia was better than many
countries which would join the EU soon.
This is a market economy strong enough to cooperate closely with the
EU economy, Verheugen said.
(Hina) ms