EU wil dat Kroatië zich meer inspant om status kandidaat-lidstaat waar te maken (en)

The EU has urged Croatia to fully implement its Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the union, particularly concerning real estate and the free movement of capital, following complaints by Italy and Belgium.

At a meeting between EU representatives and the Croatian foreign minister, Zagreb was urged to honour the obligations and treat EU citizens and businessmen according to the rules set out in the SAA, which came into force in early 2005, Balkans news agency DTT-NET.COM reports.

"With regard to the free movement of capital, the EU noted that Croatia is not complying with its obligation under Article 60 of the SAA to authorise the acquisition of real estate in Croatia by nationals of Member States of the EU," an EU statement said after the meeting.

"The EU called on Croatia to properly implement these provisions, on a non-discriminatory basis, and to remove the backlog of pending requests from EU citizens by speeding up procedures for all," reads the statement after the meeting of Croatian foreign minister Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, EU chief of diplomacy Javier Solana i and Austrian foreign minister Ursula Plassnik.

The SAA article 60 stipulates that a country (in this case Croatia) should treat EU citizens as Croatian citizens would be treated by EU member states.

The Italian government had complained Italian citizens are facing obstacles to buying property in Croatia.

In March, Italian foreign minister Gianfranco Fini sent a letter of complaint to enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn i accusing the Croatian government of "systematic discrimination against Italian citizens intending to purchase real estate in that country (Croatia)".

"While Croatian citizens, residents in Italy or otherwise, are allowed to purchase real estate in our country, the same possibility is not offered in Croatia to non-resident Italians," the letter said.

"Croatia's attitude is in stark contrast with its aspirations to join the European Union and with the commitments undertaken by Croatia within the framework of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) in force since February of last year," Mr Fini's letter continues.

The second case where Croatia is faced with EU demands to strictly implement the SAA agreement concerns the movement of capital in the banking sector.

KBC, a Belgian bank, is facing resistance to its efforts to buy 'Splitska Banka'.

Croatia's national bank argues that KBC, which is a 34 percent shareholder in Ljubljanska Banka in Slovenia, may not enter a deal with the Croatian bank so long as the Slovenian bank has not resolved its financial debts - around €160 million related to Croatians' savings during the former-Yugoslavia era.

Croatia launched membership talks with Brussels in October last year and Zagreb authorities hope the country can join the EU in 2009.