JAKOVCIC FORESEES CROATIA'S FULL MEMBERSHIP IN EU IN 2006

DUBROVNIK, May 16 (Hina) - Croatia's Minister for European Integration, Ivan Jakovcic, has envisaged that his country will be ready in 2006 for the full membership in the European Union (EU). At a lecture he gave in Dubrovnik on Tuesday evening, Minister Jakovcic said Croatia could expect in June the positive assessment of the European Commission's feasibility study for possibilities of negotiations between Zagreb and the EU. In autumn the negotiations on the Agreement on Stabilisation and Association with the EU should commence and the signing would be expected in the first half of 2001, he said. "On the path towards Europe and the European Union, Croatia will not tie itself with any south eastern European country, as the Croatian Government's strategy is the individual approach," Jakovcic said. Commenting on the European Integration Ministry's activities he said it should draft a series of documents and cited papers on the strategy for informing the public about the ministry's work and the national strategy for Croatia's admission to the EU as two most important documents. Jakovcic added that they could talk about many reasons for joining Europe but the basic one is economic, and it is particularly important for areas such as Dubrovnik-Neretva County that have tourism as the chief economic branch. (hina) ms