ZAGREB, June 18 (Hina) - Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic at Tuesday's session of the Croatian Parliament House of Counties presented a report on foreign affairs, with a special accent on the postponement of Croatia's accession
into the Council of Europe.
ZAGREB, June 18 (Hina) - Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic at
Tuesday's session of the Croatian Parliament House of Counties
presented a report on foreign affairs, with a special accent on the
postponement of Croatia's accession into the Council of Europe. #L#
Croatia was a central European and Mediterranean country which
wanted to be included into European and Atlantic systems and
institutions, Granic said, stressing that Croatia was not ready to
"wait until Yugoslavia, or any other country, resolves its interior
and foreign problems."
Croatia refused the politics of double condition and supported
an individual approach as regards its accession into the Council of
Europe - each country on the basis of clear general criteria and
each country on the basis of the objective situation.
Granic recalled that Croatia had applied for its admittance
into the Council of Europe four years ago and that its accession
had been prolonged due to the aggression and the fact that a part
of the sovereign Croatian territory had been under occupation.
Granic also recalled that in the final procedure of admitting
Croatia into the Council of Europe, Croatia was requested to take
on 21 commitments, out of which 13 had been general commitments
which were requested from every new member.
Eight commitments were of specific nature and concerned the
Constitutional law on human rights and rights of minorities,
especially rights of the Serb minority in the UN protected areas,
they also concerned the Erdut-Zagreb Agreement, full and effective
cooperation in the implementation of the Dayton Agreement,
cooperation with the International Crimes Tribunal in The Hague,
recommendations from Council of Europe experts on laws on mass
media, telecommunications and protection of competition, resolving
the crisis concerning the Zagreb mayor, and generally
recommendations of Council of Europe observers who observed the
last elections in Croatia.
Thirteen so-called standard commitments related to signing of
European conventions on human rights and five additional protocols
within a year from Croatia's accession into the Council of Europe.
The Croatian government distinguished Croatian Serbs into two
basic groups, Serbs who had been exiled in 1991 along with their
Croatian neighbours and who are returning and will be returning to
their homes along with displaced Croatians, and Serbs who
voluntarily fled Croatia in the summer of 1995, despite repeated
calls from the Croatian President and other highest Croatian
government officials for them to stay.
The return of this second group is possible in three phases,
Granic said.
The first phase is an individual return (out of 16,000
applications, 7,100 have been resolved positively so far), the
second phase is organized return which has already begun with the
first pilot programme of reconstruction and return, and the third
phase is completing the return which is to take place after the
return of exiled Croats into their homes.
This phase is to depend on the progress in the normalization
of relations with Yugoslavia, Granic said.
As regards the media, Granic said that Croatia was determined
to realize European standards in the field of media in its
judiciary system and practical life.
As regards local and regional authority, Granic said that
Croatia was ready to change the Law on local self-government and
government about which Council of Europe experts would be informed
in time.
Granic expressed grief that an agreement between the Croatian
Democratic Union (HDZ) and the opposition had not been reached,
because it would strengthen Croatia's international status.
He stressed that there existed different and clearly opposing
interests in resolving one of the most terrifying and brutal crises
and wars in modern European history.
"We have to feel conscious of the games played here," Granic
said, stressing that the most important thing was to "maintain
strategic and crucial state and national interests of the Croatian
state."
He said that Croatian representatives had for months been told
about an overall regional approach, Croatia had even been
threatened, without even formally being presented with any
document.
Explaining the issue, Granic said that this approach and
politics which was implied by it "amount to a connection in several
phases of all countries in the region in their relations with the
European Union."
"The condition is double: every progressed step in the
cooperation between any two states, according to the European
Union, is not sufficient for individual progress of any state in
its connecting with the European Union, but equal progress is
necessary in its relations and cooperation with all other countries
in the region.
In addition, every progress in relations of every country in
the region with the European Union depends on the European Union's
judgment of the progress of relations of every individual country
with all other countries in the region."
In connection to this, Granic stressed that in its
implementation, this double condition was being reinforced by the
imposition of some institutional forms and economic ties (i.e. at
least joint customs politics), and a strictly set regional
disposition (a so-called Balkan region is most frequently
mentioned).
The idea or politics of such a joint regional approach "was
officially presented to us only recently, during the visit and
meeting of Lamberto Dini and Jacques Santer with Croatian President
Franjo Tudjman, and even then only in general terms".
In the conclusion of the report, Granic said that Croatia did
not want new problems with any neighbouring country to arise, but
wanted to resolve all the existing ones.
The normalization of relations with Belgrade was a special
issue in Croatia's relations with neighbouring countries.
The basis obstacle to the next step in the normalization of
relations with Belgrade was the Prevlaka peninsula in the south of
Croatia, but Croatia categorically refused any kind of exchange of
territory, Granic stressed.
He said that Croatia had suggested to Belgrade a draft
agreement on the protection of minorities, and Belgrade's reaction
to this suggestion would mark the further direction of the process
of normalization of relations.
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