CROATIA AND EU TO HOLD LAST ROUND OF TECHNICAL NEGOTIATIONS

ZAGREB, April 24 (Hina) - European Commission representatives and Croatia's negotiating team will meet in Brussels on Wednesday to hold the last round of technical negotiations on a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA). Tomorrow the negotiators are expected to harmonise views on the remaining issues such as details from the political preamble of the SAA, liberalisation of trade in agricultural produce and fish, real estate and the length of a transitional period for the adjustment Croatia's laws to the European Union standards. In relation to the trade liberalisation, the talks will be led on how much time it will take for the Croatian market to become open for European products, given that the EU has opened its market asymmetrically making it possible for all the Croatian industrial goods and agricultural produce (except wine, fish and beef) to be imported into the EU member-countries with no tariffs and quotas. After these technical negotiations, yet another round of official negotiations must be held at which the entire text of the SAA will be defined once again and the two negotiating teams will then confirm all what has been harmonised at the technical negotiations. The official rounds include representatives of all the EU member- states, besides officials of the European commission. It is very likely that tomorrow the two sides will agree on the place and date of the last round of the official talks. Zagreb or Brussels will probably be the host of such a meeting in early May. According to some sources, the SAA is likely to be initialled in the mid-May in Brussels, but in any case the initialling will be done while Sweden is holding the rotating presidency over the EU. The Swedish presidency expires on 30 June. The EU and Zagreb are expected to sign the SAA in the second half of this year, when Belgium chairs the Union. The negotiations between Croatia and the EU on the SAA began at the end of 2000. To date all the 11 chapters have been opened and over 90 percent of the material has been harmonised. The negotiations are being conducted on a draft of the agreement which the European Commission has drawn up. At the very beginning of the negotiations Zagreb accepted most of the document and the remaining issues should be solved through amendments proposed by Croatian negotiators. The SAA is a new generation of agreements on the associate membership which the EU is using in the talks with five countries covered by the Stabilisation and Association Process - Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Macedonia has been the only country so far to conclude the negotiations and initiate and sign the SAA. The purpose of the SAA is to regulate political, economic and trade ties between the two parties. The SAA will be the first contractual relation between Zagreb and the EU and the first institutional step towards Croatia's full-membership in the Union. The agreement contains the preamble, general principles and provisions on political dialogue, regional cooperation, trade relations and the adjustment of the national legislature to the EU norms. The document also envisages fields of cooperation and assistance and steps for the implementation of the agreement. (hina) ms