ZAGREB, Nov 7 (Hina) - Significant progress has been made at talks between Croatian and Italian diplomatic experts on a friendship, cooperation and partnership agreement, held in Rome on Tuesday, and the two countries' governments are
now to confirm the harmonised content of the agreement so that it could be signed, the Croatian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday. According to unofficial statements, there is a possibility the agreement could be signed at a meeting of the Central European Initiative (CEI) in Trieste this month. The Italian government should confirm the content of the agreement today, and the Croatian government is expected to do the same very soon. The friendship agreement confirms the Rome and Osimo Accords thus regulating issues which have been mentioned lately as obstacles to concluding the friendship agreement. Those issues are Croatia's debt to optants and Italy'
ZAGREB, Nov 7 (Hina) - Significant progress has been made at talks
between Croatian and Italian diplomatic experts on a friendship,
cooperation and partnership agreement, held in Rome on Tuesday, and
the two countries' governments are now to confirm the harmonised
content of the agreement so that it could be signed, the Croatian
Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
According to unofficial statements, there is a possibility the
agreement could be signed at a meeting of the Central European
Initiative (CEI) in Trieste this month. The Italian government
should confirm the content of the agreement today, and the Croatian
government is expected to do the same very soon.
The friendship agreement confirms the Rome and Osimo Accords thus
regulating issues which have been mentioned lately as obstacles to
concluding the friendship agreement. Those issues are Croatia's
debt to optants and Italy's objection to Croatia's law on
denationalisation, which, Italy claims, is discriminatory as it
excludes the possibility for optants to participate in the process
of denationalisation.
As regards the debt to the optants, Croatia, as a successor state to
the former Yugoslavia, has inherited obligations from the
agreement the former Yugoslavia signed with Italy. According to the
Rome Accords, the former Yugoslavia was to pay slightly more than 80
million dollars on the name of compensation for the property
confiscated from the optants, but this was never done. The part of
the debt Croatia must cover amounts to some 35 million dollars and
Croatian diplomatic sources claim payment the money is the only
valid method.
Italian Foreign Minister Renato Ruggieri said at a recent meeting
of the European Union Council of Ministers in Luxembourg Italy was
willing to pay compensation to the optants thus confirming its
commitment to the regulations of the Rome Accords. Italy has bound
itself to forward to Croatia the number of the account onto which
money for the debt would be paid, and to start talks on payment
modalities. This should make the issue of optants and their
property a thing of the past, a Croatian diplomatic source says.
Italy's objection to the reportedly discriminatory nature of
Croatia's Law on Denationalisation has been resolved by placing
this issue in the context of the Stabilisation and Association
Agreement Croatia signed last week with the European Union and its
members, including Italy. The Italian side claimed the law was
discriminatory because it allowed only Croatian citizens to
participate in the denationalisation and excluded the possibility
for the optants whose property had been confiscated to participate
in it. Nevertheless, it seems the SAA, which was signed by Italy
too, has regulated the right for foreign nationals to acquire real
estate in Croatia. Four years after the SAA goes into force
(approximately in six years), foreign nationals will be able to buy
real estate under the same conditions as Croatian nationals.
The controversial decision to bestow a decoration on the 1943
Italian government of Zadar is an entirely different issue and has
nothing to do with the adjustment of the content of the friendship
agreement. Croatia is still expecting a satisfactory explanation
from Italy on the matter, the Ministry says.
According to unofficial information from Rome, the Italian Foreign
Ministry and the President's Office are yet to agree on how this
issue could be taken off the agenda in a way that would be
satisfactory for both sides.
(hina) rml