CROATIA'S ADMISSION TO COUNCIL OF EUROPE SHOULD NOT BE DELAYED - CO

CO $ MMITTEE STRASBOURG, Sept 26 (Hina) - The Political Committee of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly concluded on Thursday that a further delay of Croatia's admission to the Council of Europe would not make any sense. The Council's Committee of Ministers, which will meet at the level of ministers' representatives in mid-October, should act in line with the same procedure that had been followed in the case of accession of other new member states and set a final date of the formal admission of Croatia, the Political Committee said in its conclusions after an hour-long discussion. The Council of Europe will monitor full compliance with the guarantees Croatia had provided, a procedure applied in the admission of new member states. The conclusions were passed with an overwhelming majority of about 60 members of the committee, with certain reserves or opposition from only a few deputies. Opening remarks were made by Rene van der Linden, rapporteur for Croatia, who said, according to well-informed sources, that after Croatia's constructive approach to elections in Bosnia- Herzegovina there were no major obstacles to the application of an earlier decision of the Parliamentary Assembly on Croatia's accession. Van der Linden said he believed that the agreement on the normalization of relations between Zagreb and Belgrade was in favour of a final positive stance on Croatia's admission. The agreement also had a favourable impact on the situation in Eastern Slavonia, he added. However, it did not mean that all problems, such as cooperation with the Hague-based war crimes tribunal and the position of the Serb community in Croatia, had been completely solved. But they could also be solved with Croatia in its status as a full member of the Council of Europe, Van der Linden said. (hina) vm jn 261544 MET sep 96