PM SANADER SAYS THIS IS GREAT DAY FOR CROATIA
Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw have expressed deep satisfaction with the historic day when Croatia opened accession negotiations with the European Union. (Hina)
PM SANADER SAYS THIS IS GREAT DAY FOR CROATIA
ZAGREB, Oct 4 (Hina) - Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw have expressed deep satisfaction with the historic day when Croatia opened accession negotiations with the European Union. Addressing the press after the meeting of the bilateral inter-governmental EU-Croatia conference, which marked the official start of Croatia´s membership talks in Luxembourg on early Tuesday, Straw and Sanader described the decision of the EU Council of Ministers to launch the accession negotiations with Zagreb as historic. "This is a great day for Croatia. I am proud of being here as the Prime Minister of a country which just opened the accession negotiations with the EU," the Croatian premier said. This is a historic decision for Croatia, said Straw, the chairman of the EU ministerial council. At the bilateral intergovernmental conference, which was held behind the closed doors, the two officials also gave speeches after which all participants in the meeting celebrated with champagne. At the news conference, the British Foreign Secretary commended the Croatian government´s efforts in achieving full cooperation with the Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal. The assessment of the tribunal´s Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte on the country´s full compliance with the court gave the go-ahead for the EU Task Force to recommend the start of Croatia´s membership talks. The start of the talks was this spring postponed after Del Ponte criticised Zagreb for failing to fully cooperate with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn also expressed satisfaction with the opening of Craotia´s entry talks. Sanader reiterated that his cabinet was determined to continue cooperating with the Hague-based ICTY and that Zagreb would not forget the neighbouring region. Asked by reporters whether one could expect to see Croatia as a full EU member in 2009, Rehn said that this was a sensible time term, if everything went smoothly. Sanader said that this would be a desirable aim but that that it was not a priority. The priority is to conduct the negotiations well and efficiently, the Croatian premier explained. He dismissed all speculations about the coincidences that the agreement on the negotiating framework for Turkey was reached at the same time when the ICTY Chief Prosecutor assessed Croatia´s cooperation as positive. There are some speculations that Austria, which previously strongly opposed to offering Turkey a possibility of full membership, yielded when Croatia was given the green light. Croatia´s Prime Minister also announced an extraordinary session of his cabinet for later on Tuesday in Zagreb.
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