ZAGREB, July 10 (Hina) - European Commission President Romano Prodi on Thursday presented Croatian Prime Minister Ivica Racan with a questionnaire containing about 2,500 queries that Croatia should answer within the next three
months.
ZAGREB, July 10 (Hina) - European Commission President Romano Prodi
on Thursday presented Croatian Prime Minister Ivica Racan with a
questionnaire containing about 2,500 queries that Croatia should
answer within the next three months. #L#
Prodi said after the talks that he had brought a questionnaire with
2,500 questions that Croatia should answer in the next three
months, and that it would take the EC another seven or eight months
to prepare an opinion.
The European Commission prepares an opinion on a country that has
applied for EU membership on the basis of the answers to the
questions from the questionnaire and relying on other sources. Its
opinion is submitted to the EU Council of Ministers to decide
whether it will grant the given country candidate status and to set
a date for the start of negotiations on full membership.
Prodi said that today's level of relations between Croatia and the
EU seemed like a "distant dream" in 2000 when he last visited
Zagreb, and that now a great difference could be noticed.
He said that this was the beginning of a joint journey towards
European Union membership.
The European Commission president said he believed there would be
no difficulties in preparing the opinion, stressing that the
Commission had no intention whatsoever of interfering in Croatia's
political life.
Speaking of the questionnaire, Prodi said that it contained in part
simple questions regarding the legal system, the constitution,
laws and regulations, statistics on GNP growth and inflation,
government subsidies to different branches of the economy, the
average length of civil suits before courts, as well as questions
that are not easy to answer.
Racan said that Croatia "will do its utmost to get a positive
opinion from the European Commission."
The European Commission president would not speculate on whether
Croatia would manage to join Bulgaria and Romania in the next round
of enlargement planned for 2007.
He said that this depended on Croatia itself and that the European
Commission would do everything it could for Croatia to become a
member as soon as possible and that it would not hamper its efforts.
He added that Croatia's annual GNP growth was five percent and that
he was optimistic.
Prodi particularly underlined Croatia's responsibility to help its
neighbours in the region to join European integration processes as
quickly as possible because otherwise Europe would not be complete.
He said that Croatia would enter alone, before other countries.
Prodi said that during his visit he talked to leading government and
opposition officials about all aspects of relations between
Croatia and the EU, including political conditions such as regional
cooperation, cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal in The
Hague, and reforms that other candidates also had to implement in
order to qualify for membership.
(hina) vm sb