CROATIA EU ENTRY TALKS START
Written by Brussels journalist David Ferguson
Euro-reporters.com, Belgium
Monday, 03 October 2005
“This is not the case of Croatia versus Carla del Ponte or Carla del
Ponte versus Croatia. This is Croatia and Carla del Ponte working
together. This is the case of General Gotovina being in The Hague,”
said Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader.
Speaking in Luxembourg, after meeting EU Foreign Ministers,
Sanader received good marks from Carla del Ponte, Prosecutor of the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). “I
would like to have the same cooperation from Serbia Montenegro as the
one I have from Croatia,” said del Ponte, speaking alongside Sanader.
Negotiations on Croatian EU entry were originally scheduled for
March. Zagreb, however, had to prove that it was fully cooperating with
the ICTY. This included making ‘more convincing efforts’ to bring war
crimes indictee former general Ante Gotovina to the UN tribunal. UK
Foreign Affairs Minister Jack Straw has repeatedly stressed that EU
negotiations can begin as soon as possible once full cooperation has
been established.
At a joint press conference with Sanader, Del Ponte refuted suggestions
that she had given in to pressure from certain EU member states to
give a positive report on Croatia: “I did not have any pressure. After
six years work everybody knows that I am not moved by pressures.”
Austria, which opposes EU negotiations with Turkey, had argued that
negotiations with Zagreb could start, especially in the light of
continuing human rights problems in Turkey and Ankara’s non-recognition
of Cyprus or the Armenian genocide.
In Luxembourg, Del Ponte also reiterated her desire for the Vatican
to cooperate fully in the Gotovina case: “We had certain information
about the possibility of General Gotovina hiding in a monastery. My
request was to help us identify the monastery, if he was actually
hiding in a monastery.”
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