LOVRAN, Aug 30 (Hina) - Croatia's European Integration Minister Neven Mimica said on Saturday the refusal of Great Britain and the Netherlands to ratify Croatia's Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU did not
represent a legal hurdle to Croatia's being granted EU candidate status.
LOVRAN, Aug 30 (Hina) - Croatia's European Integration Minister
Neven Mimica said on Saturday the refusal of Great Britain and the
Netherlands to ratify Croatia's Stabilisation and Association
Agreement (SAA) with the EU did not represent a legal hurdle to
Croatia's being granted EU candidate status. #L#
It is realistic to expect that Croatia will be granted candidate
status next April and begin accession negotiations as early as late
2004, under Ireland's presidency of the European Union, Mimica said
in Lovran at a European integration ministry seminar.
He recalled that Slovenia and Estonia were given candidate status
before all EU countries ratified their "European" accords.
The minister, however, did underline that the situation with the
ratification of the agreement should be taken seriously and that
the case of the fugitive General Ante Gotovina, who is wanted by the
Hague war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, should be
resolved as soon as possible.
"The ratification is not a formal legal requirement for getting
candidate status, but it is a very significant political
prerequisite to enter the EU because the EU has placed cooperation
with the Hague tribunal at the top of the list of political
issues."
Mimica announced intensive diplomatic activity with London, which
he is due to visit before Prime Minister Ivica Racan next month.
"We will try to assure the EU that this is not about political
unwillingness to cooperate with The Hague but about the fact that,
according to available information, Gotovina is not in Croatia".
(hina) ha