MESIC-HALONEN: FINNISH GOV'T DISCUSSING SAA BETWEEN CROATIA, EU

HELSINKI, Oct 22 (Hina) - Finland's government is currently debating the process of ratifying the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) between Croatia and the EU and will forward its recommendation to parliament as early as Friday, Finnish President Tarja Halonen said on Wednesday after talks with her Croatian counterpart Mesic, adding that parliament should decide on the ratification of the SAA within the next several months. #L# The government will today discuss the ratification of Croatia's agreement and forward its recommendation to parliament, Halonen said and expressed hope the government would adopt a positive decision. She said she expected the process in parliament to last several months. The SAA between Croatia and the EU has so far been ratified by ten EU countries -- Austria, Denmark, France, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, Germany, Spain, Sweden and Portugal. The agreement is in the ratification process in Belgium and Italy while Great Britain and the Netherlands froze the ratification process, thus expressing dissatisfaction with cooperation between Zagreb and the UN war crimes tribunal at The Hague. "Croatia expects Finland's support on its path to EU membership," said Mesic after the talks with the Finnish president. Halonen expressed her country's full support to Croatia's efforts to join the EU. Commenting on regional cooperation, which was also one of the topics of the Mesic-Halonen talks, Mesic said that his vision of cooperation among countries of Southeast Europe was similar to cooperation which existed among Nordic countries. Mesic is on a day-long working visit to Finland after which he will travel to Sweden. After talks with the Finnish president, Mesic will meet Parliament President Paavo Lipponen and Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen. (hina) it