OPERATIVE CONCLUSIONS ON CRO TO BE DISCUSSED WEDN - EUROPEAN COMMISSION

ZAGREB, May 25 (Hina) - The European Commission (EC) will on Wednesday reach operative conclusions based on the latest report on Croatia, EC special envoy to Croatia Per Vinther told Hina on Tuesday. The EC will discuss the latest, regular biannual report on the situation in Croatia, which should be followed by operative conclusions to be adopted at a May 31 session of the European Union Council of Ministers. The operative conclusions recommend to the EU Council of Ministers what kind of further treatment should be applied to a specific country. The latest report on Croatia does not bring any significant changes in relation to earlier ones, but according to the EC Office in Zagreb, the operative conclusions will be more positively intoned in relation to previous EC assessments. The latest EC report states that Croatian authorities have not made a satisfactory progress with regard to the electoral legislation, the freedom of the media, and the return of refugees. Hina unofficially learned from government officials that Croatia, dissatisfied with the EC assessment, had already reacted with a series of remarks to the report with a so called non-paper. The EC issues biannual reports to assess the situation in countries included in the regional approach policy, i.e. to assess if the countries in question have met the criteria necessary for a European package. In Croatia's case, this would be the four-year freeze in the PHARE programme. (hina) ha jn