ROUND TABLE ON SAA AND REGIONAL INITIATIVES HELD

ZAGREB, Oct 3 (Hina) - Croatia must be consistent in implementing its Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the European Union with as high a degree of national consensus as possible, and firmly dismiss all initiatives directed at institutionalised forms of political and economic cooperation in Southeast Europe, president of the Democratic Centre Mate Granic said in Zagreb on Wednesday, at a round table called "the SAA in the light of Balkan initiatives - prospects for Croatia". "Croatia must have an active regional policy which will include bilateral cooperation not only with Southest European countries, but also with countries of Central Europe and Mediterranean countries," Granic said at the end of the round table which was organised by his party. Representatives of parties and several experts for international relations discussed Croatia's prospects for joining the European Union in the context of the implementation of the SAA and regional initiatives for the southeast of Europe. Representatives of political parties supported Croatia's European orientation, stressing however, it was necessary to remove the danger of imposing Balkan regional initiatives in Croatia by an active policy. Granic said that "institutional economic connection is unacceptable for Croatia not only for political reasons but is also discouraging from the economic point of view considering Croatia's better development in relation to the neighbouring countries in Southeast Europe." According to the chairman of the Croatian parliament's foreign policy committee, Zdravko Tomac, "regardless of Croatia's efforts, different initiatives which aim at a regional solving of issues in the so-called West Balkans will be imposed on the country for a long time." "Such initiatives are proposed because the international community has no solution for the region and believes that problems in one country, under the principle of communicating vessels, are immediately reflected on its neighbours. Unfortunately, Croatia is included in this region, primarily because of the solving of the situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina," Tomac stressed. Tomac advocates Croatia's active policy towards the region, particularly regarding Bosnia, but supported with a strong diplomatic offensive which will clearly show that Croatia is ready to help the solving of instability in the region, but not to tie its own fate to the fate of the region. "Croatia's individual path toward the European Union goes through Sarajevo," Tomac asserted. European Integration Minister Neven Mimica reiterated that a standpoint in line with which the SAA did not bring the principle of individual approach into question had been presented on several occasions. Assistant Foreign Minister Vladimir Matek said that regional initiatives, such as a recent non-paper proposed by Germany, did not jeopardise Croatia, if the country was successful in the implementation of the things agreed within the SAA with the EU. Matek stressed there were initiatives, such as the Adriatic-Ionian or the Process of Cooperation in the Danube River Region, which cancel the impression that exclusively Balkan regional cooperation was trying to be imposed. Croatia should sign the SAA with the EU on October 29, on the margins of a meeting of the Council of Ministers in Luxembourg. (hina) it sb