RIJEKA, May 6 (Hina) - The European Commission's Ambassador in Croatia, Jacques Wunenburger, said on Tuesday that Croatia needs to meet three important conditions in order to join the European Union -- advance cooperation with the UN
war crimes tribunal at The Hague, accelerate the process of the return of refugees and conduct a justice reform.
RIJEKA, May 6 (Hina) - The European Commission's Ambassador in
Croatia, Jacques Wunenburger, said on Tuesday that Croatia needs to
meet three important conditions in order to join the European Union
-- advance cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal at The Hague,
accelerate the process of the return of refugees and conduct a
justice reform. #L#
Those three issues are connected because refugees will not return
if criminals are still at large, Wunenburger said at a panel called
"Local Government and Self-Government - How to Enter Europe" which
was organised in Rijeka on the occasion of the European Week.
Wunenburger said Croatia's economy was progressing in the right
direction. After Croatia submits its answers to questions from the
European Commission's questionnaire, the commission can decide on
accepting Croatia's candidacy in April 2004 at the earliest after
which it will forward its decision to the European Council,
Wunenburger said.
Croatian European Integration Minister Neven Mimica said Croatia
had made big steps towards full membership of the EU since the last
year's European Week.
Also presented was the first issue of the pull-out section in the
Novi List daily called "Europa". Editor-in-chief Neven Santic said
the section would once a month publish data on Europe and its
integration which were not published in daily press.
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