SPOKESMAN: CROATIA WELCOMES EC DECISION ON OPENING NEGOTIATIONS

ZAGREB, July 19 (Hina) - Croatia on Wednesday welcomed today's decision by the European Commission to propose to the European Union's Council of Ministers the opening of negotiations on the Stabilisation and Association Agreement between the EU and Croatia. "Croatia is happy with the fact that the European Commission has prepared guidelines for negotiations on stabilisation and association," Goran Rotim, spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, told Hina. "The speed which in the Zagreb-Brussels cooperation has led to the feasibility study and the guidelines testifies on the one hand to the resoluteness of the Croatian government to access through accelerated reforms the main policy and membership in the EU, and on the other to EU's confidence that the Republic of Croatia is guarantor of democratic processes, the stabilisation and development of Europe's Southeast," said Rotim. According to the Foreign Ministry spokesman, Croatia also welcomes EC's hope that the negotiations, which need to be confirmed by EU's Council of Ministers, will begin before a Zagreb summit this autumn gathering the EU and countries in the process of stabilisation and association. "This decision by the EC confirms that in only seven months, Croatia, from a country without any institutional relations with the EU, has come to the position of potential candidate for membership in the EU, as stated in the conclusions by the European Council from a recent conference in Portugal," said Rotim. (hina) ha