EUROPEAN MOVEMENT CROATIA: TOWARD EUROPE "AT ANY COST"

ZAGREB, Jan 18 (Hina) - Croatia's accelerated admission into the European Union requires thorough structural changes in the country, which has no other alternative but Europe, the president and the secretary-general of the European Movement of Croatia, Drazen Kalogjera and Ljubomir Cucic, told reporters in Zagreb on Tuesday, presenting a handbook on admission to the EU. #L# "A New Croatia: Fast Forward to the European Union" is a work by a group of independent experts who are members of a non-government, non-profit organisation called EGIDA (European Civic Initiative for Democratic Alternative), and it offers a strategy of Croatia's integration into Europe. The system of the EU "has its flaws but it is still the best among poor systems," Guste Santini, one of the authors of the handbook, said at today's lecture, organised by the Government's Office for European Integration. Contrary to frequent Euro-phobic warnings in the past several years that Croatia should not aspire toward Europe at any cost, Santini said Croatia should do it "exactly at all costs." The authors of the handbook estimate that by the year 2006 Croatia could be completely prepared for entering the EU, if it makes a radical turn. The new Croatian government should not calculate or fear radical turns for fear of strikes and social unrest, the authors of the handbook believe. (hina) mm rml