ZAGREB, July 10 (Hina) - The road Croatia has embarked on by submitting its application for membership in the European Union is "long and arduous" but the EU and Croatia are taking it together, European Commission President Romano
Prodi said in his address in the Croatian parliament on Thursday.
ZAGREB, July 10 (Hina) - The road Croatia has embarked on by
submitting its application for membership in the European Union is
"long and arduous" but the EU and Croatia are taking it together,
European Commission President Romano Prodi said in his address in
the Croatian parliament on Thursday. #L#
"Croatia has embarked on a long and arduous process which requires
additional efforts in areas such as the reform of the judicial
system, freedom of the media, respect for minority rights and the
return of refugees. It calls for a major effort on the sensitive
issue of cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for
the former Yugoslavia," the EC president said.
Prodi will today hand officials in Zagreb a questionnaire with some
2,500 questions pertaining to the political, economic and social
situation in the country. This is the first time an EC president is
personally handing the questionnaire to a country's officials.
The answers will form the basis for the Commission's opinion on the
starting of accession negotiations.
"Our journey together starts today and in some years' time it will
take Croatia into the European Union," Prodi said, adding that all
countries which had gone through this strenuous and at times
painful process had come out stronger and consolidated.
He recalled the recent EU summit in Thessaloniki, which voiced the
Union's firm support for the integration of the Balkans into the
Union.
"I will never tire of repeating that Europe's unification can never
be regarded as complete until all the countries in the region are
full members of the Union...
"Your country also has a special responsibility, because at present
Croatia is in the forefront. It is for you to 'set a good example'
and show that the goal can be reached if the political will is there
and you are ready to follow in the footsteps of Europe's founding
fathers...
"The whole of the Balkans must come into the European Union. No
wall, no barrier must divide the Balkans. That would be
unthinkable. We know only too well how much suffering such divides
have caused," the EC president said.
He voiced confidence that the time had come to build bridges, open
borders and restore links and trade.
The regional framework is necessary for the development of
stability and security, but in the process of admission,
achievements by individual countries will be evaluated, Prodi
said.
"This does not mean that Croatia will have to wait until every other
country is ready to join before it becomes a member... each country
will be judged on its own merits and capacities.
"But the process of enlargement for the Balkan countries is one and
indivisible. And ultimately the region as a whole must be fully
integrated into the Union," Prodi said at the end of his address.
"Croatia is ready to embark on the journey with the EU and set an
example for other countries in the region," Parliament President
Zlatko Tomcic said in his welcome address, stressing that Croatia
was interested in the stabilisation of the region. "Croatia
supports all positive processes in its neighbourhood as well as the
admission of those countries... as soon as they meet admission
criteria."
"Croatia has the same, if not greater interests than the EU when it
comes to the development of economic and political stability in its
neighbourhood," Tomcic said.
After his address to the Sabor, the EC president met Tomcic.
(hina) rml sb