The Council of Ministers reached an agreement in principle last Monday. This is a temporary agreement, which has to be confirmed by the European Council, and it reads that the talks with Croatia will probably start in April on condition the country establishes full cooperation with the Hague war crimes tribunal. The exact date is yet to be determined, which is linked with the solution of some technical issues, the source said.
Asked to comment on Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader's statement that the Council of Ministers' proposal is not final, the official said that he was not familiar with Sanader's statement, but that launching the talks would be no problem if Croatia cooperated fully with the UN tribunal.
The same official said that a report by the tribunal's chief prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, would play an important role in the assessment of Croatia's cooperation with the tribunal, but that there was also an assessment by European ministers, who he said had a large number of information sources, including their embassies in Zagreb.
The source said that according to the initial draft conclusions, which read that Croatia's cooperation with the tribunal should be confirmed by the Council of the European Union, there seemed to be the need for a new decision by the Council, which was why that statement was left out.