Croatia's Deputy Foreign Minister talks about Croatia's prospects for entering the EU and the new circumstances that have occurred after the war in Iraq.
Q: The Council
of Ministers asked of the European Commission to give its opinion on
Croatia’s prospects of becoming a membership candidate. What should Croatia do?
A: Be patient. The European Commission will in the next couple of months
draw a list of some 4,000 questions that will be delivered to Croatian
authorities. These questions need to be carefully studied and answered.
The European Commission will then analyse them and hopefully by May
pass an opinion about Croatia’s application. Why May? Because in May
the Commission’s composition changes. It is very important for Croatia
that its application be reviewed before May, by the “old” Commission,
so that its processing would go as quickly as possible. With the Commission’s
good will and the efforts of the Croatian authorities, I think this
will prove quite feasible.
Q: Do you think that Croatia should form a team of experts for
the purposes of negotiating with the EU?
A: All states that negotiated with the EU had a negotiations team,
led by a chief negotiator. When I said that it is necessary for Croatia
to have a stable and professional negotiations team, I meant that after
the Croatian parliament adopted the Declaration on approaching the EU
in which it unanimously agreed that approaching the European integration
is Croatia’s national priority, we should now go a step further and
decide that negotiating with the EU is to be set as Croatia’s number
one priority, independently of Croatian political parties. On whether
these negotiations prove successful or not depend millions of dollars’
worth of aid Croatia might get in the future. Therefore, I believe that
the awareness of what is best for all will prevail and that it will
be possible for the key political parties in Croatia to reach a consensus in the near future.
Q: The EU has found itself in a new situation because of war in
Iraq. Bonn and Paris have a better understanding with Moscow than with
some of the EU members. Could this affect Croatia’s application?
A: There are indeed some divisions within the EU. However, the cohesive
forces that unite it are much stronger than those that divide it. It
is in the best interest of all that these differences be overcome, and
this is what I think is going to happen in the future. The divergence
of opinions over Iraq will probably leave some scars, but it is not
something that the Union could not overcome. Regarding Croatia’s application,
I do not think that divisions within the EU will have any effect on
it. Croatia’s position has always been that of principle and integrity,
and has been respected by all Members, even those that did not always share our view.
Q: It seems that it is the general opinion that the UN should have
a key role in the post-war Iraq. How does Croatia plan to contribute to that?
A: Post-war reconstruction of Iraq is a chance for the UN to reaffirm
their position, as they are the EU’s favourite. Although there is no
international consensus on this issue, it is in Croatia’s interests
to share its views with the UN. What the UN can offer Iraq is, above
all, the trust that the Iraqi people have in the UN as an impartial
institution whose goal is to establish Iraq’s sovereignty as quickly
as possible and help the Iraqi people take their destiny in their own
hands and take control of their own human resources. The UN can also
co-ordinate the aid from multilateral organisations such as the World
bank, the IMF, and various other bilateral donators, and co-ordinate
activities undertaken by other agencies in that field. Therefore, I
think that both in political and organisational sense the UN are ideal
for leading the post-war reconstruction of Iraq.
Croatia has already offered 20 mil. kuna (about US$ 3 mil.) worth of
humanitarian aid - no small deal considering its size and GDP. In this
way Croatia has shown that it sympathises with the Iraqi people who
have needlessly suffered because of Saddam Hussein. Apart from offering
humanitarian aid, Croatia is willing to take active part in the reconstruction
of Iraq, for the purposes of which the Croatian government has organised
meetings with various Croatian companies. A consular office has recently
been opened in Syria, which will also facilitate co-ordination between
the economic subjects in Croatia and the situation on the field, and
help estimate the necessity versus possibility of employing Croatian
companies in Syria.