Start onderhandelingen met Kroatië over lidmaatschap EU nog steeds onzeker (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The expected launch of EU membership talks with Croatia on 17 March is still in doubt.

EU ambassadors will discuss the issue on Thursday (10 March) at the so called COREPER meeting and draft possible conclusions for the Council to consider next week (16 March).

"It is up to Croatia now, not to the member states", a Commission's official said.

Asked if COREPER was the deadline for Croatia to comply with EU expectations, he said that the meeting this Thursday would certainly be important, but "if something happens between the 10th and the 16th (March), it will of course be taken into account".

At the end of last month, Croatian Foreign Minister Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic warned that a freeze on Croatia's membership talks would send a negative message to the entire region (West Balkans).

However, the Commission's spokesperson said to the EUobserver that "we completely separate the issues. Every country evolves for its own merits".

Croatia has been under the spotlight since the EU announced that the country's efforts to arrest a leading war-crimes suspect, General Ante Gotovina, were insufficient.

Croatia has been accused of deliberately failing to arrest the General.

"Following repeated contacts with the Hague tribunal and other well informed sources I have reason to agree with the chief prosecutor (Carla del Ponte) that Gotovina is within reach of the Croatian authorities", Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn was reported saying on the EUbusiness website.

The Croatian government on the other hand has insisted it is doing everything it can, and stated the General was not in the country.

Recently, Croatian President Stipe Mesic was reported in saying in the European Voice that "by the same logic, we could be requested to deliver (Osama) bin Laden".

It was the European Council in December 2004 that decided to open the accession negotiations with Croatia on 17 March 2005 provided that there is full cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

To this end the summit reiterated that the remaining indictee must be located and transferred to the Hague as soon as possible.