ZAGREB, May 9 (Hina) - Foreign Minister Tonino Picula said on Friday full EU membership was a strategic objective of the Croatian government but also the wish of three-fourths of the country's population.
ZAGREB, May 9 (Hina) - Foreign Minister Tonino Picula said on Friday
full EU membership was a strategic objective of the Croatian
government but also the wish of three-fourths of the country's
population. #L#
Picula made the statement during a lecture at the Zagreb School of
Economics given as part of the marking of Europe Day.
He said there was a danger of viewing the EU entry project as one
done for politics and not Croatian citizens. "It is important that
we show through good communication with the public that this is a
citizens' project and not a project of the political elite."
Asked about the prospect of Croatia joining the Union in 2007,
alongside Bulgaria and Romania, Picula said he wished for Croatia
to complete negotiations with the EU by 2006.
Picula said he was confident Croatia would catch up with those two
countries, but stressed he was not certain Croatia would be
admitted as a full EU member in 2007.
"That depends on many other things: election results in EU
countries, internal affairs in the Union, elections for the
European Parliament, but also on the public mood in the EU," he
said.
"Nonetheless, we must be in the group of countries which will enter
in the next round."
Commenting on cooperation with the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The
Hague, Picula said he believed the hardest part of relations was a
thing of the past. "In part this is due to the fact that the Croatian
public's attitude towards the tribunal has changed."
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