The EU Council of Ministers decided on the night from Monday to Tuesday in Luxembourg to open the negotiations with Croatia early Tuesday morning.
The text of the Council’s conclusions welcomes “the ICTY Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte’s report to the EU Working Group confirming Croatia’s full co-operation with the ICTY and the Croatian Prime Minister’s dedication to go on with the co-operation until the last of the accused is handed over to the ICTY and as long as the ICTY requires it”. It also states the Chief Prosecutor’s assessment that “if Croatia continues to work on it with the same dedication and intensity, Ante Gotovina will soon be delivered to the Hague”. “The Council has reiterated that full co-operation with the ICTY will remain the condition for progress in the negotiating process. The Council invited the Commission to carry on with its close monitoring, based on the ICTY’s regular reports, and inform the Council if full co-operation is discontinued”, reads the text. “The Council agreed that the lack of full co-operation with the ICTY at any stage can affect the overall progress and be the basis for initiating the mechanisms from Paragraph 12 of the negotiating framework”, read the conclusions. Paragraph 12 contains the clause that regulates the possibility of suspending the negotiations in certain cases. The Paragraph states that the Commission can propose the suspension, while the Council reaches the final decision by the qualified majority voting.
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