PATTEN TO MEET WITH CROATIAN FOREIGN AND EU INTEGRATION MINISTERS

ZAGREB, May 11 (Hina) - European Commissioner for foreign relations Chris Patten on Monday will arrive in the southern Adriatic town of Dubrovnik where he is to hold a working meeting with Croatian Foreign Minister Tonino Picula and Minister for European Integration Ivan Jakovcic, European Commission Ambassador to Croatia Per Vinther said Thursday. Upon his arrival in Dubrovnik, Patten is scheduled to visit Montenegro, where he is to hold talks with Montenegrin senior officials, Vinther told reporters after he held a lecture on Croatia's path to European integration in Zagreb. When asked about the aid programme for Croatia, Vinther said that the European Commission at its regular session on Wednesday, proposed the adoption of the European Union's aid programme for four countries which were to start negations with the European Union on an agreement on stabilisation and association, and for Macedonia which already started the negations. The CARDS programme includes Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Albania, and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. As a part of the agreement, the Commission plans to donate a total of EUR5.5 billion to those countries, of which half of the amount is for the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in case of its democratisation in the period between 2000 and 2006. If Serbia fails to show democratic changes, the money will go elsewhere, he said. The Commission earmarked aid for Croatia for this year, worth EUR18.5 million, of which EUR10 million were earmarked for reconstruction. When asked whether the European Union's finacial-investment conference for Croatia in June would be held, Vinther said it was too early to talk about the conference, however, ways and forms of assisting Croatia in a process of creating more jobs would definitely be considered. (hina) it mm