CONFERENCE ON ASPECTS OF CROATIA'S INTEGRATION INTO EU TAKES PLACE

PLACE $ IN ZAGREB ZAGREB, Dec 14 (Hina) - Croatian and European economy experts discussed economic aspects of the process of admitting Croatia into the European Union at a two-day conference in Zagreb. The conference had been held so as to initiate discussions on Croatia's future strategy for its admission into the EU, said a text adopted at the end of the conference on Saturday. Considering the dynamics of integration processes in Europe, Croatia needed to define the priorities of its strategy as soon as possible, presiding Luc Bernard with the institute for the analysis of integration processes said. The conference, entitled "Economic Aspects of Croatia's Integration into the European Union", was organized by the Institute for International Relations and the Trans European Political Studies Association (TEPSA) from Brussels. The text stresses that Croatia has to quickly and thoroughly resolve structural problems, for example trade deficit, the growth of unemployment and low rate of investments, with the aim of its successful integration into the European Union. The process of integration is a long process and its success will depend on non-economic factors - political, security related, social or regional, the text says. Foreign and domestic experts were to continue discussions on the problem of integration, but Croatian legislative and executive institutions were to make the decision on technical aspects of Croatia's strategy for its accession into the European Union, Bernard said. (hina) lm 141751 MET dec 96