Croatia has deserved this decision, Balkenende said at a press conference at the end of the Council's two-day session in Brussels.
The last part of a sentence from the draft conclusions, which read "if full cooperation with the ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia) has been confirmed", was modified in the final text.
Asked to comment on the change, Balkenende said that it was done over the confusion caused by the earlier text, because it was not clear who was to confirm whether cooperation existed or not. He added that it would be up to the next EU chair, Luxembourg, to assess Croatia's cooperation with the tribunal.
We are aware that Croatia is ready and willing to cooperation with the Hague tribunal and we hope we will be able to start negotiations on the date set in the conclusions, Balkenende said.
"This is one in the series of important dates in recent Croatian history," Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said. He participated in the last part of the session along with the prime ministers of other countries candidates for EU membership.
Sanader said he was satisfied with the decision. "The date of April 26 was still mentioned in the morning, and the draft conclusions said that additional confirmation of cooperation with the ICTY was necessary. This requirement was deleted from the final text. We had been saying that Croatia was under obligation to fully cooperate with the Hague tribunal anyway, and our argument was accepted."
"Our obligation to fully cooperate with the Hague tribunal does not end here. We have yet to resolve the one outstanding case and I want to believe that we will do it very soon and that General Gotovina will realise that any further procrastination is damaging both to him and to Croatia," the Croatian prime minister said.
The European Council called on Croatia to take the necessary steps with a view to full cooperation with the Hague tribunal and reiterated that the remaining accused must be located and transferred to The Hague as soon as possible.
Asked how he would resolve the Gotovina case if the fugitive general did not realise that his refusal to surrender was harmful both to him and to Croatia, Sanader said: "I am not answering hypothetical questions. We do not know where General Gotovina is. We will do all we can to resolve this case. There is the indictment which General Gotovina must face in The Hague and there is no alternative to it."