VIENNA, Jan 31 (Hina) - The Austrian parliament's National Council approved Croatia's Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the European Union in Vienna on Thursday afternoon.
VIENNA, Jan 31 (Hina) - The Austrian parliament's National Council
approved Croatia's Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA)
with the European Union in Vienna on Thursday afternoon.#L#
Austria is the first EU country to have put the ratification of the
SAA on its parliamentary agenda. To go into force, the SAA has to be
ratified by all EU members. The European Parliament and the
Croatian parliament have already done so.
To be ratified in Austria, the Agreement has to be approved by
parliament's upper house, which is scheduled for Feb. 21, and
signed by the head of state.
All of Austria's parliamentary parties unanimously okayed the SAA,
thus fully supporting Croatia on its path into the European family,
they said.
Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner stressed the fact that
Austria was the first EU state to have put the SAA on its
parliamentary agenda and unanimously approve it.
"We want to show how much we appreciate Croatia as an exceptionally
reliable partner in the region," she said.
She described the Agreement as the foundation stone of Austrian-
Croatian bilateral relations, which she said were very intensive.
Croatia's Ambassador to Austria Drazen Vukov-Colic voiced
satisfaction with Austria's approval of the SAA, which he said was
"the beginning of Croatia's second recognition into the family of
Europe's 15."
(hina) ha sb