BRUSSELS, Dec 18 (Hina) - Talks on the political-security chapter of the Stabilisation and Association agreement between Croatia and the European Union were the central topic of the beginning of the first round of negotiations between
Croatia and the EU which started in Brussels on Monday. According to Croatia's main negotiator Neven Mimica, it was agreed that Croatia was not joining regional cooperation for the sake of the negotiations with the European Union, but for the sake of this being one of the crucial elements of Croatia's foreign policy. The Stabilisation and Association agreement points to the need for bilateral conventions on cooperation among countries included in the stabilisation and association process. The conventions include political dialogues, the development of economic relations, and cooperation in the struggle against illegal migrations. "We agreed that regional cooperation with stabilisation
BRUSSELS, Dec 18 (Hina) - Talks on the political-security chapter
of the Stabilisation and Association agreement between Croatia and
the European Union were the central topic of the beginning of the
first round of negotiations between Croatia and the EU which
started in Brussels on Monday.
According to Croatia's main negotiator Neven Mimica, it was agreed
that Croatia was not joining regional cooperation for the sake of
the negotiations with the European Union, but for the sake of this
being one of the crucial elements of Croatia's foreign policy.
The Stabilisation and Association agreement points to the need for
bilateral conventions on cooperation among countries included in
the stabilisation and association process. The conventions include
political dialogues, the development of economic relations, and
cooperation in the struggle against illegal migrations.
"We agreed that regional cooperation with stabilisation and
association process countries would not include anything else but
bilateral conventions on cooperation, particularly not some kind
of a form of an association of states", Mimica said.
"We can take over the obligation to continue to strengthen
cooperation which we have already established with the majority of
the countries from the stabilisation and association process,
apart from Yugoslavia, with which this was not possible so far, due
to political reasons", Mimica told Croatian reporters.
He added the European Union would also assess each country's
readiness for bilateral cooperation, and not the number of signed
convention in order to make sure that lack of readiness of one
country would not cause damage to another.
Today's beginning of negotiations is very useful for the clearance
of some fundamental issues, in order to, in the second round of
negotiations scheduled for February 2001 to be held in Zagreb, be
able to start concluding certain chapters form the Agreement,
Mimica stressed.
The introduction part of the meeting tackled the issue of the
continuation of cooperation with the International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
Representatives of the European Union pointed to the significance
of the continuation of the cooperation, however, according to
Croatian negotiation sources, this issue is not obstructing the
course of the negotiations. In his introduction speech, Mimica
pointed to Croatia's demand to, via a dialogue and partnership with
the international community, improve the existing cooperation with
the office of the ICTY prosecutor, therefore a meeting with ICTY
prosecutor Carla del Ponte was proposed. All misunderstandings
should be cleared at the meeting.
Mimica expressed regret about the fact that the communication
between the Croatian government and the ICTY had become the subject
of a wide public debate.
In his introduction speech, Mimica also tackled the Croatian
government economic programme, adding that the government planned
to entirely privatise the Croatian economy in three to four years.
He stressed that the Croatian government paid great attention to
the financial and technical assistance of the European Union within
the Stabilisation and Association Agreement.
"Our joint efforts will contribute to the establishment of a
functional market economy in Croatia which will be capable of
answering challenges of the competition at the European market",
Mimica stressed.
The first round of negotiations is scheduled to end by 18.00 hours
today. In the continuation of today's talks, the officials will
discuss the financial cooperation, institutional mechanisms for
the implementation of the agreement, freedom of movements of
employees.
(hina) it