CRO AMBASSADOR TO EU ADVISES CROATIA NOT ACCEPTED TO PHARE

( Editorial: --> 9657 ) BRIJUNI, Oct 19 (Hina) - The European Union will once again in November not accept Croatia's accession to the PHARE programme as a result of the slow return of Serbs to Croatia, the unsatisfactory level of internal democratisation and the latest problem of Croatia's attitude to minorities Croatian Ambassador to the EU Janko Vranyczany-Dobrinovic on Monday told HINA. "Based on the access we have, it is more than likely that we will not be accepted to the PHARE programme at this stage", said Vranyczany- Dobrinovic. He is currently attending a Forum on Globalisations and Small Nations which is being held on the Brijuni island (northern Adriatic). A draft report on Croatia will be submitted to the European Commission in the first half of November. One of the founding objections the Commission has is that Croatia has not taken any steps towards transforming its state television into a public television media. Further, it has not changed its electoral laws and lastly the return of Serbs to Croatia is just not fast enough. Dobrinovic, however, said that apart from the already known objections and demands set to Croatia in the last EU report, a new objection has appeared in the latest report which refers to Croatia's negative attitude towards minorities. The EU is probably referring to the issue of minorities in Istria and the belief that Croatia is discriminatory toward Serb returnees as it has not regulated the law on property management , he said. In its programme of regional accession by which the EC set forth a series of pre-conditions which need to be fulfilled by countries being considered for accession, including Croatia, a review is conducted each six months to see the progress on fulfilling the set conditions. The process of regional access "gives the European Union every opportunity to demand new pre-conditions", said Vranyczany- Dobrinovic. In 1997 the EU formulated its regional accession programme by which it virtually pushed Croatia into the Balkans categorising it together with Bosnia-Herzegovina, Yugoslavia, Macedonia and Albania. With its regional access and pre-conditions the EU has put pressure on Croatia to unconditional cooperation in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the implementation of the Dayton accord. The next European Commission report is due in April 1999 however, if Croatia fulfils or speeds up the process of fulfilling the Commission's set preconditions it is possible Croatia could be formally accepted to the PHARE programme. (Hina) sp jn 191814 MET oct 98