Croatia could start the talks in March next year on condition its full cooperation with the Hague tribunal is confirmed, a European diplomat said after EU foreign ministers discussed enlargement issues today.
The Dutch EU presidency will prepare new draft conclusions on Croatia by Thursday, and those conclusions will be discussed by EU heads of state and government on Thursday evening, the first day of the summit. The final decision is expected to be adopted on Friday, the second day of the summit.
In relation to the initial proposal by the Dutch EU presidency, which stated that the accession talks would start at a certain date on condition that the Council of the European Union confirms Croatia's full cooperation with the UN tribunal, it is now suggested that the text of the proposal should only read that full cooperation with the ICTY must be confirmed, without mentioning who would have to do it.
Slovene Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel said he was confident that the talks would start next spring, probably in March or April, on condition Croatia is considered to be fully cooperating with the Hague tribunal.
Rupel said the change in the draft conclusions meant that the EU would again ask the tribunal's chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte for an opinion, which would be discussed again by the Council of the European Union.
The Slovene minister said that in today's debate the EU was divided in two groups with regard to setting a date for the start of accession talks with Croatia. The first group, consisting of Germany, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and Ireland, requested that the earliest possible date be set without putting any conditions. The other group, which showed reservations and asked that certain conditions be set for the start of talks, consists of Great Britain, the Netherlands, Italy, Denmark and Sweden, Rupel said.