PARIS, Nov 15 (Hina) - The European Commission confirmed that the so-called regional approach of the European Union towards countries in former Yugoslavia's area would not include inter-dependent institutional linking of those
countries, and that their future negotiations on cooperation with the EU would be held individually, European Commission representatives and Croatian diplomats said at a meeting in Paris on Friday.
PARIS, Nov 15 (Hina) - The European Commission confirmed that the
so-called regional approach of the European Union towards countries
in former Yugoslavia's area would not include inter-dependent
institutional linking of those countries, and that their future
negotiations on cooperation with the EU would be held individually,
European Commission representatives and Croatian diplomats said at
a meeting in Paris on Friday. #L#
Assistant to the Croatian Foreign Minister, Hidajet Biscevic,
the head of the Croatian mission at the European Union, Janko
Dobrinovic-Vraniczany, and his deputy Mladen Andrlic, on Friday
held talks with a European Commission delegation headed by the
general director for foreign affairs, Guenther Burghardt, on the
continuation of talks between Croatia and EU on future contractual
relations.
Burghardt told the Croatian delegation that the European
Commission wanted to stimulate cooperation and not the creation of
associations among the countries in the region.
We cleared up controversies about EU documents on the regional
approach, Biscevic said, adding that the European Commission had
accepted Croatian arguments that the establishment of stronger
links among Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia outside of the framework of implementing the Dayton
Agreement commitments would not lead to stability in the region,
and that the three countries had different potentials and
priorities in negotiations with the EU.
For example, while the Croatian strategic interest lay in its
access to European integration processes, Yugoslavia's main
priority was to re-establish cooperation with countries in former
Yugoslavia's area and its interest coincided with the conditional
regional approach, Biscevic said.
The European Commission delegation confirmed that neither the
starting points nor the dynamics of negotiations with the countries
in the region would be the same.
As regards Croatia, its dialogue with EU, interrupted after
the Croatian military operation "Storm", would be renewed from the
point it was interrupted at and would not start again from square
one, European Commission envoys said.
The first phase of future negotiations about contractual
relations between Croatia and EU is to begin at the end of this
month with a visit of a EU technical mission to Zagreb.
Croatia and the European Commission agreed that the issue of
the regional approach had to be considered without political
connotations, and that the EU approach should not restrict other
initiatives for regional cooperation.
The European Commission accepted the Croatian argument that
"relations between Croatia and EU should not be hindered by the
situation or policies of other countries".
Biscevic stressed that there were other ways to stabilize the
region, for example, with the process of normalization of relations
among the countries or with a regional agreement on arms control.
The European Commission delegation on Friday held separate
talks with diplomats from Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) on the development of their relations
with the European Union.
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