AMBASSADOR: ITALY UNCONDITIONALLY BACKS CROATIA'S BIDS TO ENTER EU

ROME, Feb 20 (Hina) - Italy's support to Croatia's entry into the EU is not related to negotiations Rome and Zagreb are conducting regarding the solution to the problems of assets which Italian refugees left in Croatia when they fled to Italy after World War II, Croatia's Ambassador to Italy told Hina on Thursday. #L# Italy supports Croatia's admission into the European Union, and the government has for the second time forwarded the motion to the Italian parliament to ratify Croatia's Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU. Parliament is expected to ratify the document soon, Ambassador Drago Kraljevic said. Concerning a meeting of representatives of Italian refugees (the so-called Esuli) with Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini on the restitution of property they left in the wake of WWII, Kraljevic said the negotiations on the issue were continuing. A mixed Croatian-Italian commission, set up on 14 October last year, should soon convene and mull the requests of the refugees (ethnic Italians from southern Croatian areas). "There is a certain difference in the views on who is entitled to the restitution of the property and on figures, but the commission is going to meet to negotiate it. It has been identified that there are groups of Italian refugees who could get their property back pursuant to Croatia's law on de-nationalisation, and the matter will be negotiated. It is essential that the Croatian law is not discriminatory against anybody, and Italian citizens will be treated in the same way as Croatian nationals. We are working on the joint identification of such cases," the diplomat said. He emphasised that Rome's support and the issue of the property restitution were not related. "Italy backs Croatia bids to enter the EU. This is an issue separated from the work of the mixed commission for the resolution of the restitution problems," Kraljevic said. (hina) ms