Croatia places high importance on relations with Serbia

Belgrade, 1 April 2005 – Croatian Ambassador in Belgrade, Tonci Stancic, said today that it is of “great importance” for his country to have a stable and democratic Serbiaas a partner in European integrations, Beta agency reports.

In the discussion with the press on the topic of European integrations, which was organised by the Serbian European Integration Office and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Mr Stancic said that the two countries can make progress only if they “rely on one another”.

He said that the relations of the two countries are now “very good” and that the last year’s visit of Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader to Belgradewas of “highest importance`.

Mr Stancic added that this significance was especially related to economic cooperation between Serbiaand Croatia, since these countries are not powerful enough to place their products on the developed world market on their own.

According to Mr Stancic, the potential of exchange between these two countries is around one billion USD, while the last year’s exchange amounted to around 300 million USD. The Ambassador could not specify the date when Croatiawould meet the last condition for starting the negotiation on full membership with the EU – full cooperation with the Hague Tribunal.

Mr Stancic positively estimated the fact that the present condition for initiating the negotiations is not the extradition of the Hague indictee Ante Gotovina; Croatia simply has to prove that he is not hiding in the country.

`I believe that Croatiawas very successful in proving this fact over the past few days`, said Croatian Ambassador.

He added that the “Euroscepticism” has increased in Croatiasince the failure to start negotiations with the EU on March 17, as it was envisaged, but that it should not be connected exclusively with the “Gotovina case”.

Mr Stancic reminded that Croatiahad to meet 626 conditions for starting the negotiations, and that it fulfilled 625 – everything but the extradition of Gotovina.

According to Mr Stancic, Croatian example shows that the conditions for starting the negotiations on EU accession are not negotiable and that they have to be accepted and fulfilled if a country intends to accede to the EU. He added that the cooperation with the Tribunal should not be `taken emotionally` because it implies the international obligations which must be met.

Croatian Ambassador said that it is most important that Croatiais prepared for negotiations and that there should be no concern about the time of their outset. Croatiahas already fulfilled 15 out of 30 conditions which have to be met on the road to the EU membership. The Ambassador could not specify the date for Croatian accession to the EU, but said that he doubted it could happen before 2007, primarily because of the technical issues which have to be resolved.