Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-04-20-Speech-2-321"
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"en.20040420.16.2-321"2
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".
Mr President, I am delighted to be here today with my friend and colleague Commissioner Verheugen to present the Commission's
on the possibility of opening accession negotiations with Croatia. The Commission is also publishing today its first European partnership with Croatia, which sets out priorities for both the short term and the medium term.
Third, there is the question of minority rights. This is extremely important to the Parliament; it is extremely important to all of us as Europeans. It is important that Croatia implements properly its legislation on minority rights. The OSCE has also reported to us that more needs to be done to ensure that Serbian refugees currently living in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia are able to return to their homes. However, the present government has concluded an agreement with the Croatian Serb leader, Mr Pupovac, designed to achieve that effect. There is still much to be done, however, but progress is being made: we welcome that and we are assured that it will continue.
Perhaps the most difficult issue, as it is throughout the region, has been the question of cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia – ICTY. Our position is straightforward and it is well known: in line with regular conclusions of the European Council, we require that all the countries of the Western Balkans cooperate fully with the tribunal as a non-negotiable condition for progress down the Stabilisation and Association Process. We rely for our assessment on the opinion of the tribunal itself.
Until recently, Croatia's record was far from perfect – though I recognise that efforts were being made. However, in recent months, cooperation has been greatly improved. It is particularly worthy of note that two groups of indictments involving eight people, both Croats and Bosnian Croats, were dealt with speedily and without fuss by the Croatian Government. All eight were transferred to The Hague within a week or so of their indictments.
There remains the question of former General Ante Gotovina. He has been indicted for very serious crimes and remains at large. Commissioner Verheugen and I consulted the chief prosecutor of the tribunal and she gave both of us very clear advice. She concluded that Croatia was fully complying with the tribunal, and saw no likelihood of that situation changing. As far as the Gotovina case was concerned, she indicated that the Croatian Government was doing all it could to help locate him and turn him over to The Hague. We asked the referee, the referee gave us her decision and I do not believe that it is for us to try to second-guess her.
So, both our criteria have been met in full and the way is now clear for a positive assessment on this crucial issue. I must just add one thing: as we say in the
it is extremely important that Croatia continues to cooperate fully with the tribunal and that, in particular, the Croatians demonstrate very clearly that they are doing everything they can to locate and apprehend the remaining indictee. It is a matter for the Irish presidency to choose the date for the Council's consideration of our
; I know that Member States will be watching this question very closely between now and then.
I repeat that this moment gives me considerable pleasure. I would like to congratulate all those with whom we have worked over the past few years, and who have laid the foundations for this decision. I would like to congratulate the present government on what it has done, and I hope this moment will be one for celebration in Croatia. With that I will hand you over to my colleague Commissioner Verheugen, who will indicate to the Parliament some of the other parts of the
and give you some indication of the next steps.
In politics we very often overuse the word 'historic', but this is indeed a historic day for Croatia and this is an occasion which I know gives both Commissioner Verheugen and myself considerable personal pleasure.
Croatia is the first of the Western Balkan countries to get to this stage, although I know that – perfectly understandably – Croatia would prefer a rather different description. Geography, as I have often said in the past in Zagreb, is not destiny. It is not a surprise that Croatia has reached this stage well ahead of any of its neighbours. Had it not been for the legacy of war, it might well have got to this stage on the road to membership a great deal earlier.
Croatia applied for membership in February 2003 and the Council asked us to prepare our opinion in April of that year, so it has taken us a year of hard work. I do not apologise, however, for the time that we have needed. Assessing a country's readiness for candidate status is one of the most important institutional duties that the Commission undertakes. I do not want to keep honourable Members in suspense, so let me tell you straight away that the College has decided today to recommend to the Council that accession negotiations be started with Croatia in due course.
I think the applause is deserved, and if the occasion was less salubrious we could have managed a standing, rather than a crouching ovation!
Commission Verheugen and I would like to set out a little of the thinking behind the Commission's decision, and I am sure you will agree that it is important for us to say rather more clearly why we have arrived at this extremely welcome conclusion.
From the very beginning, it became clear that the most important areas for consideration were the political criteria set out in Copenhagen in 1993. There are a number of considerations which we had to bear in mind and I will touch on the main ones. The Croatian judiciary is – unhappily – poorly trained and organised and a huge backlog of cases is waiting to be considered. However, the independence of the judiciary is not in question. Croatia has a lot of work to do in improving the quality of judicial decision-making but it has – and we are convinced of this – a strategy for doing so and it now needs to implement that strategy.
Second, Croatia's relations with its neighbours have not been entirely smooth recently. There have been difficult border disputes with Slovenia, as well as disputes over fishing rights in the Adriatic which were not helped by unilateral action by Croatia last year. However, since the election last December, the Croatian Government has shown a willingness to resolve these disputes in a sensible way based on mutual understanding."@en1
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