EURO COMMISSION ATTENTIVELY STUDIES CROATIA'S RESPONSE

ZAGREB/BRUSSELS, Nov 9 (Hina) - The European Commission is attentively studying the Croatian Government's response to the European Union Speaking Note, but no formal reaction can be expected for the time being, according to sources with the European Commission. Last Friday, the Croatian Government forwarded its comments on the EU Note to representatives of EU Troika in Zagreb. The EU Ministerial Council's session, scheduled for 15 and 16 November, will have an items of the agenda about relations with the countries which the Council classifies in the so-called west Balkans (Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), Macedonia, Albania). On this occasion the Council may discuss views expressed in the latest diplomatic correspondence between the EU and Croatia. In early December, the Ministerial Council is expected to adopt operational conclusions of the European Commission on the grounds of a regular report given every six months on the developments in the aforementioned countries in southeastern Europe and to draw up guidelines for the EU relations with them in next six months. Changes in circumstances and developments, however, in any of those countries could be the reason for the EU to separately re-modify relations with the country concerned before the end of the six- month period. No progress is expected in the EU relations with Croatia before the completion of the election period, the same sources reported on Tuesday. The first step toward the institutionalisation of relations should be the set-up of a task force consisting of Croatian and EU experts whose job will be to prepare an Agreement on Stabilisation and Association as the first form of contractual relation between the EU and a country in the region called by Brussels as west Balkans. At the end of last month an EU Troika delegation handed over the Speaking Note to the Croatian Government, which relayed the dissatisfaction of the EU with the new Croatian electoral law, that, according to the EU, may bring into question the Croatian authorities' readiness to conduct free and fair elections. The EU also criticised Croatia for insufficient cooperation between Zagreb and the Hague-based international war crimes tribunal (ICTY). Commenting on that Note, the Croatian Government rejected EU objections about the electoral law, asserting that solutions provided by that law guarantee the free and fair election. According to the Government's comments, EU objections about a lack of cooperation with the Hague Tribunal were vague and Zagreb replied that Croatia had extradited all war crimes suspects whereas the dispute about the jurisdiction over the 1995 "Storm" and "Flash" operations is for Croatian authorities a legal dispute. (hina) mm ms