ZAGREB, May 28 (Hina) - Croatia expects to begin negotiations on new relations with the European Union by the fall, counting on the fact that its advancement on conditions set will speed up its accession to this European association,
Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic said at a press conference in Zagreb on Friday. The European Commission on Wednesday decided that countries included in the regional approach, including Croatia, should be offered the possibility of establishing a new type of agreement on relations - an agreement on stability and admission. The new agreement on relations would make each country's drawing closer to the EU conditional on the degree they are fulfilling conditions required from them, which remain unchanged. "The EU foresees that at the beginning of fall, it will open negotiations with the Republic of Croatia", Granic said. Granic said he expected Croatia to
ZAGREB, May 28 (Hina) - Croatia expects to begin negotiations on new
relations with the European Union by the fall, counting on the fact
that its advancement on conditions set will speed up its accession
to this European association, Croatian Foreign Minister Mate
Granic said at a press conference in Zagreb on Friday.
The European Commission on Wednesday decided that countries
included in the regional approach, including Croatia, should be
offered the possibility of establishing a new type of agreement on
relations - an agreement on stability and admission.
The new agreement on relations would make each country's drawing
closer to the EU conditional on the degree they are fulfilling
conditions required from them, which remain unchanged.
"The EU foresees that at the beginning of fall, it will open
negotiations with the Republic of Croatia", Granic said.
Granic said he expected Croatia to obtain the new agreement on
relations with the EU with the help of a recent consensus between
the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and the Opposition over the
election law and the agreement reached on Croatian Radio
Television's transformation into a public television, which was
part of the conditions the EU demanded of Croatia in order to
strengthen mutual relations.
"I forwarded the foreign ministers of the EU and EC a letter on
behalf of the Croatian Government, asking that this process be
accelerated based on all the achievements Croatia has made
recently", he said.
According to Granic, the first reactions by the international
community to Croatia's achievements, had been "very positive".
Granic said the EU would first open negotiations on the
stabilisation and admission agreement with Macedonia and Albania
and then with Croatia. The process would be conducted with
intervals of one month each.
Responding to comments that sources in Brussels have indicated that
the EU would not commence negotiations on advancing relations with
Croatia prior to the elections, Granic said that "certainly such
thoughts, too, existed in the EU".
"Nevertheless we believe the achievements made by Croatia will be
influential and that negotiations will begin early in the fall,
which means before the elections", he said.
Speaking about the latest plan by the EU to stabilise the restless
region of South-East Europe with the Stability Pact, Granic said
that compared to the regional approach, the pact meant something
new in a way which was favourable to Croatia, primarily as regards
respect for individual approaches, the rejection of plans to create
any new associations, a definition of relations with Russia, and
the acceleration of integration of the entire region into the EU and
NATO.
"A draft of the Stability Pact in itself does not abolish the
regional approach, however, it places it in a completely new
context", said Granic.
He considered that the foreign affairs position of Croatia in the
past two months had strengthened primarily due to the fact that
Croatia offered its support to the NATO military actions against
Yugoslavia.
Speaking about Croatia's foreign affairs, Granic said that
negotiations between Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina regarding
their borders "were advancing excellently", and that 970
kilometres of the border had been defined. He believed that
negotiations would be finalised by the end of June.
According to Granic, the first meeting of the Council for
Cooperation between Croatia and the Federation of Bosnia-
Herzegovina was expected on June 11. The meeting will be a forum to
open some key issues regarding a military agreement.
Croatia hopes that it will soon receive a response to a proposed
economic agreement forwarded to Bosnia-Herzegovina some time ago.
As far as the NATO Partnership for Peace is concerned, Granic said
Croatia was continuing negotiations with the US regarding
directives about approaching this programme.
Although some progress has been made in relations between Croatia
and Slovenia regarding contentious issues, they still have not
realised the level of progress expected and more effort will have to
be made in this regard, the Foreign Minister said.
Asked whether there were any responses at the Bonn talks on the
Stability Pact to the peace initiative to the Kosovo crisis put
forward by Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, Assistant Foreign
Minister Josko Paro said there were no reactions, adding the Bonn
meeting was not a meeting about the Kosovo crisis.
(hina) sp/rml