COE STANDARDS HELP CROATIA TO ACCESS EURO-ATLANTIC ASSOCIATIONS

LONDON, May 5 (Hina) - Croatia's membership in the Council of Europe and the accepting of its standards helps Croatia in its accession into other economic and security Euro-Atlantic organisations, Croatian Deputy Foreign Minister Ivo Sanader said in London on Wednesday. Sanader is attending the marking of the 50th anniversary of the Council o Europe in London from May 4 to 5. Council of Europe's experts provided Croatia with an "immeasurable contribution to reforms necessary fir overcoming the consequences of war and undemocratic layers from the past system," Sanader told Hina. Croatian legislature has been harmonised with provisions of the European commission on the protection of human rights and basic freedoms, as well as with other conventions and agreements which today make up what we call joint European standards, he said. "The respect and realisation of legal instruments -- primarily those in the fields of human rights, but also legal cooperation, the fight against corruption and organised crime -- adopted at the Council of Europe in the past five decades, have become one of the basic criteria for accession into economic and security associations such as the European Union and NATO, which are our next goal," Sanader said. (hina) lml