NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN EU AND CROATIA LEADING TO AGREEMENT

BRUSSELS, Jan 26 (Hina) - The first technical negotiations between Croatia and the European Commission on a Stabilisation and Association Agreement which took place in Brussels Thursday and Friday will enable reaching final agreements on individual sections of the text of the agreement at the next plenary negotiating round, Croatia's chief negotiator Neven Mimica said Friday. The negotiating round mostly focused on trade relations, agriculture, fishing, textile and traffic corridors, as well as issues on the freedom of movement of people and services and possibilities of founding companies in Croatia and the EU, Mimica said. The chief of the Southeast Europe department at the European Commission's foreign relations general directorate, David Daily, said negotiations were carried out satisfactorily thanks to the fact that the Croatian side arrived in Brussels very well prepared. The negotiations are facilitated by the fact that the EU last year almost completely opened up its market for Croatian products. Negotiations are now focusing only on tariff relief for European products being imported into Croatia, Daily said. (hina) lml sb