BRUSSELS, July 17 (Hina) - The European Commission hopes that prior to a summit of the western Balkans and the European Union, set for autumn in Zagreb, new trading relations will be established between EU member states and Croatia,
said Commission President Romano Prodi on Monday in Brussels where he conducted talks with Croatian President Stjepan Mesic.
BRUSSELS, July 17 (Hina) - The European Commission hopes that prior
to a summit of the western Balkans and the European Union, set for
autumn in Zagreb, new trading relations will be established between
EU member states and Croatia, said Commission President Romano
Prodi on Monday in Brussels where he conducted talks with Croatian
President Stjepan Mesic.#L#
The European Commission has already adopted a draft for new
economic relations with Croatia and now it is up to EU member
countries to endorse these measures, said Prodi at a news
conference he held with Mesic, and explained that it was about duty-
free import of most Croatian products. In addition, measures will
be taken to ease Croatia's access to the European market.
Our aim is that this week we may be given a negotiating mandate for
the Stabilisation and Association Agreement with Croatia and we
hope that the EU member countries will endorse the mandate very
soon, said Chris Patten, the European Commissioner for External
Relations, who also met the Croatian head of state.
Patten stressed that the Commission wanted to start the
negotiations with Croatia as soon as possible, i.e. before the
scheduled summit of western Balkan countries.
We appreciate efforts the new Croatian government is investing in
the future of the country, Commissioner President Prodi said adding
that the European Commission understood the difficulties of a
complicated political situation and even bigger difficulties of
huge economic transformation.
Despite many problems Croatia is faced with such as the problem of
refugees, the country's potential is strong, he assessed and
announced that on Tuesday the EC would begin granting 10 million-
euro assistance to Croatia for the refugee problem.
The sum is not great but we want to forward a message of the
political stability to the region, Prodi said.
"We talked about all concrete topics and the summit which will be
organised in Zagreb, at French President Jacques Chirac's
initiative, and which will draw officials of all EU member-states
and countries established in the area of the former Yugoslavia
(SFRY)," Croatian President Mesic told reporters adding that
additional consultations would be held on possibilities of
inviting some neighbouring countries to the Zagreb conference.
An essential part of the Brussels talks was to make it clear that the
Zagreb summit should not be limited to framework messages, Mesic
explained.
It should be established how the summit can go the heart of
problems, and after it Croatia can certainly be no longer what it
has been before, he envisaged.
Mesic advised that all parties should assume their part of
commitments.
"Croatia, being a safe zone, must be attractive to foreign
investment," he said adding that the EC would take concrete
measures to funnel the capital to his country.
Mesic, who today commenced his two-day visit to Brussels with
meetings with NATO and EU representatives, is to hold talks with
senior Belgian officials on Tuesday.
(hina) mm ms