BRIEF NEWS BULLETIN IN ENGLISH NO. 5346

KOPACEVO, June 12 (Hina) - President Stjepan Mesic said on Saturday heexpected Croatia to be granted European Union candidate status becauseit deserved it and because it had met the required standards. Croatian President Stjepan Mesic has said thathe stands by his earlier statements that Stjepan Tudjman and MilanKovac lost in the early 1990s a bag with money which Croatianemigrants raised for the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ). In responseto announcements by Tudjman and Kovac that they would sue him forslander, Mesic said: "They can sue me, that's why courts exist here aswell". On the occasion of the 15th anniversary of theestablishment of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), HDZ leader andPrime Minister Ivo Sanader, accompanied by the party's presidencymembers, on Saturday laid wreaths at the Altar of Homeland on MountMedvednica and on the grave of the first Croatian President and thefounder of the HDZ, Franjo Tudjman, at the ce