ZAGREB, Feb 19 (Hina) - Neither parliament nor the government have made any serious omission in the rapprochement with the EU, parliament speaker Zlatko Tomcic said on Tuesday, refuting an article in the Vjesnik daily alleging Croatia
could not receive EUR60 million from the Cards programme due to parliament's slowness. The parliament has never seen an agreement which enables Croatia to use EUR60 million from said programme, and the claim that parliament has not been capable of ratifying the agreement for three months is incorrect, said Tomcic. He believes Croatia is doing well as regards integration into the European Union, and stresses that Vjesnik's implication that the deadline for the submission of a formal request for full-right membership in the EU might be extended does not hold water. I expect the ratification of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU to be completed this yea
ZAGREB, Feb 19 (Hina) - Neither parliament nor the government have
made any serious omission in the rapprochement with the EU,
parliament speaker Zlatko Tomcic said on Tuesday, refuting an
article in the Vjesnik daily alleging Croatia could not receive
EUR60 million from the Cards programme due to parliament's
slowness.
The parliament has never seen an agreement which enables Croatia to
use EUR60 million from said programme, and the claim that
parliament has not been capable of ratifying the agreement for
three months is incorrect, said Tomcic.
He believes Croatia is doing well as regards integration into the
European Union, and stresses that Vjesnik's implication that the
deadline for the submission of a formal request for full-right
membership in the EU might be extended does not hold water.
I expect the ratification of the Stabilisation and Association
Agreement with the EU to be completed this year or in the first
months of 2003 at the latest, which will ensure the formal
requirements for submitting the request for full-right membership,
Tomcic said.
(hina) np sb