EUROPEAN UNION TO FINANCE MINE REMOVAL IN CROATIA

ZAGREB, Nov 10 (Hina) - The European Union Council of Ministers has granted Croatia ECU435,000 (around DM900,000) for specific programmes related to mine removal in 1998, a spokesperson for the Office of the European Commission in Zagreb said on Tuesday. The Western European Union (WEU) has been entrusted with implementing the programmes and it will send its mine removal experts to Croatia at EU's request, spokeswoman Mirella Rasic said. These experts will be on a one-year mission to Croatia, where they will coordinate, supervise and train Croatian mine-removal teams. This is the first time the EU is actually to use the WEU for an operational task on the basis of the Maastricht Agreement, EU chairman and Austrian Foreign Minister Wolfgang Schuessel said speaking about Article J.4(2) of the Maastricht Agreement. According to the article, the EU can request the WEU to plan and carry out actions related to the security policy. The WEU is an European defence organisation founded in 1954. It gathers 28 states, which have four different kinds of status - full members, associated members, observers and associated partners. (hina) mm rml