Wunenburger dismissed as untrue allegations that the EU had additional demands for Croatia to fulfil other than those relating to fugitive general Ante Gotovina. He said it was wrong to say that Croatia was hostage to one man and that the point at issue was the rule of law as the fundamental value of the EU.
The head of the European Commission's Delegation said that Croatia sometimes underestimated the EU's persistence in its demands and that government officials sometimes expected the EU to be more flexible.
Wunenburger pointed out that there were two ways for Croatia to meet the EU demands. One was to arrest Gotovina and transfer him to the Hague tribunal and the other was to implement the government's action plan related to the Gotovina case and wait for the next report by Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte, which is due on June 30.
The European Commission ambassador said that it was not known when the EU would open membership talks with Croatia, but added that their possible delay would not be a tragedy. In this context, he cited the case of Slovakia with which the EU had postponed the start of entry talks for two years and which was eventually admitted to the bloc.