BRIEF NEWS BULLETIN IN ENGLISH NO. 4881

HR-BULLETIN-Politika BRIEF NEWS BULLETIN IN ENGLISH NO. 4881 HINA Zagreb 3 March 2003COE SECRETARY GENERAL SUPPORTS CROATIA'S JOINING EUZAGREB, March 3 (Hina) - The Council of Europe Secretary-General, Walter Schwimmer, on Monday supported Croatia's attempts to join the European Union and expressed hope this would take place as early as the next round of the enlargement, in 2007. At a meeting with a Croatian parliament delegation in the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly, Schwimmer expressed hope Croatia would be among the countries to join the European Union in the next round. He said he hoped that membership of the Council of Europe, which Croatia joined in 1996, would assist the country's accelerated joining the EU. The CoE secretary-general advocated better pan-European cooperation on an equal basis, regardless of the size of individual countries and the fact whether a country is in or out the EU. He said that after another 10 countries joined the EU, half the European coun