PORTO CARRAS, June 20 (Hina) - The fate of South Eastern Europe's countries is membership in the European Union and it depends on them when they will join, the Union's commissioner for foreign affairs, Chris Patten, said in Porto
Carras on Friday.
PORTO CARRAS, June 20 (Hina) - The fate of South Eastern Europe's
countries is membership in the European Union and it depends on them
when they will join, the Union's commissioner for foreign affairs,
Chris Patten, said in Porto Carras on Friday. #L#
Patten said membership in the EU was what EU leaders wanted to
stress at an EU-Western Balkans summit set to take place in Porto
Carras, about 100 km south of Thessaloniki, on Saturday.
The summit will give EU leaders an opportunity to show the peoples
and governments of the Western Balkans that their Stabilisation and
Association process (SAP) is identical to the one the countries
that join the EU next year have gone through, said Patten.
On the other hand, he stressed the region's countries had to resume
with political and economic reforms.
The EU wishes to help them complete reforms, which is required to
start negotiating membership, Patten said, adding the date of
joining the Union would depend on each country's individual
results.
The leaders of the EU's 15 nations and ten countries that join in
2004 will meet tomorrow with their colleagues from five countries
participating in the SAp. Croatia's delegation will be headed by
President Stjepan Mesic.
(hina) ha