BRUSSELS, Oct 20 (Hina) - Croatia is at the moment a completely episodic topic in the European Union and sanctions or ultimatums are out of the question, however, the EU's messages are clear and serious and have to be observed in
foreseeable time or stricter measures could be introduced, a senior Croatian diplomatic source told Hina in Brussels on Sunday.
BRUSSELS, Oct 20 (Hina) - Croatia is at the moment a completely
episodic topic in the European Union and sanctions or ultimatums
are out of the question, however, the EU's messages are clear and
serious and have to be observed in foreseeable time or stricter
measures could be introduced, a senior Croatian diplomatic source
told Hina in Brussels on Sunday. #L#
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, made the statement
ahead of a meeting of the EU Council of Ministers in Luxembourg on
Monday.
"The EU ministers are not meeting on Monday to warn Croatia. This is
a regular meeting of the Council, which will mention Croatia in the
section of its final document referring to so-called western
Balkans," the source said.
It is very important for the public in Croatia to be aware of the
actual state of relations with the EU at the moment, which is
serious but not dramatic, the source said.
The text of the final document of the Council of Ministers is
subject to changes until the last moment and it could include three
possible scenarios for Croatia.
The optimistic scenario envisages events that would be assessed by
the ministers as direct confirmation of Croatia's cooperation with
the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague (ICTY), such as
the handing of an indictment to a former Croatian Army Chief-of-
Staff, General Janko Bobetko, but also the acceptance of statements
from Croatia's appeal to the ICTY, in which case Croatia would not
be mentioned in the final document at all.
An adverse effect could be caused by Croatia's possible conduct
which might be interpreted as procrastination or unwillingness to
cooperate with the ICTY, which could result in a ministerial
assessment advocating as tough as possible an approach.
The third and most probable solution for the time being is that the
ministers, if no significant changes happen, will remind Croatia
about the need to fully cooperate with the tribunal and warn it that
it could significantly hamper its rapprochement with European
institutions if it fails to cooperate.
(hina) rml sb