ZAGREB, June 25 (Hina) - President Stjepan Mesic said on Wednesday he was certain Croatia would join the European Union in 2007, and that he expected the next parliamentary election would be held early next year.
ZAGREB, June 25 (Hina) - President Stjepan Mesic said on Wednesday
he was certain Croatia would join the European Union in 2007, and
that he expected the next parliamentary election would be held
early next year. #L#
"Croatia has a defined path, the capability and the strength to meet
all conditions and be ready as early as 2006 to join the EU and be
admitted in 2007," Mesic said in an interview with national
television on the occasion of Statehood Day.
"I am an optimist because everything depends on us," the President
said, adding Croatia had made great steps since signing the
Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU. Parliament is
working on adjusting legislation to EU standards and only a few
political issues remain, he said, adding the law on ethnic
minorities now had to be applied.
Speaking about economic criteria required for EU entry, Mesic said
Croatia had a growth rate of 5.2 percent and US$5,800 per capita
income. He said unemployment remained a major problem that would be
dealt with also with the building of the infrastructure which would
give new impetus to the economy.
Asked about Ante Gotovina, a fugitive indictee of the Hague war
crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Mesic reiterated he had
not met with the general. The situation has changed in the wake of
Gotovina's recent interview with Nacional because he told the
weekly he recognises the Hague tribunal and Croatia's institutions
and that in the past he had been prohibited from talking to Hague
investigators, said the President.
Asked about the extent of his current engagement in the Gotovina
case and had he not become Gotovina's attorney, Mesic said he was
only asking the Hague tribunal to enable Gotovina to be
interviewed. Mesic said his involvement ended at that.
Asked had it not been naive to expect that the prosecutor's office
would change Gotovina's status from indictee to suspect, the
President said: "Chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte can change the
indictment or not, but she can hear him out before (Gotovina)
answers the tribunal's questions. Gotovina would get a chance to
say everything he has to say and present all the evidence."
Mesic said he would receive Gotovina as a retired general if he
requested so. Asked would Gotovina then be arrested, the President
said that would be unnecessary because he would no longer be a
fugitive.
"I am calling on General Gotovina to make himself available to
Croatian bodies," Mesic said, adding incumbent authorities were
not liable in any way in connection with the Gotovina case.
Asked which coalition would be his favourite at the next election,
the President said he did not wish to discuss that in concrete
terms.
"I will back those who are pro-European, who respect civil rights,
who advocate solving unemployment and activating all of Croatia's
potentials," Mesic said. He added that in case the Croatian
Democratic Union won the election, cohabitation would not
constitute a crisis.
Mesic said he expected the parliamentary vote would be held next
spring.
Commenting on data that 50 percent of Croatians did not know
Statehood Day was marked on June 25, the President said
parliament's decision on the changed data had not been sufficiently
explained in the media.
It is logical that Statehood Day should be celebrated on the day
parliament passed the decision and the declaration that Croatia was
leaving the Yugoslav federation to become an independent,
sovereign country, Mesic said, accepting the suggestion that in the
future, representatives of disabled persons' organisations and
various NGOs, among others, should also be invited to Statehood Day
receptions.
The President further said that over the next five years Croatia
should undergo reindustrialisation at a higher technological level
than the one it was at before it was destroyed by a wrong
privatisation model. He vowed much more would be done by next
Statehood Day and that citizens would feel it.
(hina) ha sb