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Friday, September 2, 2005

Compliance with Hague tribunal is key to accession, says Croatia's Foreign Minister

Speaking to the Foreign Affairs Committee on 30 August about her country's EU accession application, Croatia's Foreign Minister Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic acknowledged "the issue of our cooperation with the ICTY [the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia] is paramount". The Council of Ministers decided in March not to set a date for the start of Croatia's membership negotiations because it had failed to cooperate fully with the ICTY. A key issue was the surrender of the fugitive general Ante Gotovina but Ms Grabar-Kitarovic claimed yesterday that every effort was being made to locate him.

The minister had come to Brussels to convince MEPs that Croatia was making good progress on a range of issues relating to compliance with the accession criteria but, given the view of ICTY chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte that Croatia has not done enough to resolve the Gotovina case she faced many questions from MEPs on this point. She flatly rejected the idea that any member of the government had been in contact with Gotovina, adding "All government parties support the policy of cooperation with the ICTY" . Later she said there was "No hidden agenda in this case".

She then spoke of the Action Plan set up by the government in April to ensure full compliance with the ICTY's demands. She explained that the plan had security and intelligence components but also included an awareness campaign to persuade a sometimes sceptical public opinion in the country to see "cooperation with the ICTY as something that is in the interests of Croatia". Hannes Swoboda (PES, AT), the committee's rapporteur on Croatia, questioned how effective the Action Plan had been, saying pictures of Ante Gotovina seen in public places indicated he was regarded by some as a hero. Ms Grabar-Kitarovic replied that the authorities did remove such pictures but in any case these activities were now declining.

Another key issue is the return of refugees and the situation of minorities, especially the Serb population. The minister told MEPs that a total of 117,448 minority refugees had returned to the country since 1995 and that Croatia aimed to complete the entire process by the end of 2006. The state had put €3.34 billion into refugee return programmes by the end of 2004, with €262 million more planned for this year. This money went into areas such as housing reconstruction and the restitution of property.

On a related question - Croatia's ties with its neighbours - Ms Grabar-Kitarovic pointed to agreements signed with Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia-Montegro on the return of refugees and the protection of minorities. There were disagreements over maritime boundaries with Slovenia, especially its unilateral declaration in August of a protected environmental zone in the Adriatic. But the minister said Croatia was keen to resolve these matters through mutual dialogue or, failing this, would be willing to accept binding international arbitration.

Ultimately, Ms Grabar-Kitarovic hoped the ICTY would evaluate the Action Plan as amounting to full cooperation and hence providing sufficient grounds for negotiations to begin soon. She believed this would send a signal to other countries in the region that compliance with international norms would be rewarded.

The Council of Foreign Affairs Ministers may look at again at the question of setting a starting date for Croatia's accession negotiations at the informal Gymnich meeting on 1-2 September in Newport, Wales.

Source  Committee on Foreign Affairs, European Parliament

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