‘Croatia ready to finish entry talks in two years’

By Andrew Beatty

Date: 03/11/05

Croatia's President Stjepan Mesic believes that his country can complete EU accession negotiations in just two years, despite a warning from the European Commission that negotiations will now be stricter than ever.

Mesic, whose second term in office is to finish in 2010, said that concluding talks in two years was "possible" and that he would like to be the president to take Croatia into the EU.

"Two years is quite an acceptable period for concluding the negotiations. We have to do our part of the job and the Union has to recognise our efforts," he said.

"We don't believe that this negotiation process will be a long one because there is a group of people that can - from the Croatian side - finish the negotiation process rather soon."

Before joining the EU, Croatia will be expected to complete 35 negotiating 'chapters' on issues ranging from the environment to customs.

Neighbouring Slovenia took five years to complete negotiations and a further 16 months formally to join the EU.

The Croat president's comments come less than a month after the EU agreed to open membership talks with Croatia, once UN

prosecutor Carla del Ponte said that the country was co-operating

sufficiently with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, a key EU demand.

His ambitious timeframe comes as the EU looks to raise the bar higher for membership aspirants in the wake of the Dutch and French votes against the constitution.

Interpreted in part as a reaction to the experience of last year's enlargement, the Commission has warned that it will now be looking more closely at implementation not just commitments.

A Commission spokesperson said: "It takes as long as it takes...to do it in two years would be doing something that no one has ever done before."

According to one Croatian political scientist, two years is "quite a short schedule". "Croatia definitely expects relatively quick negotiations because we are well prepared but it is a technical process," he said.

But Mesic remains optimistic about entering the EU before the end of his term.

"We have implemented most of our reforms, the reform of the police, reform of the armed forces. Now there is the reform of the public administration and the judiciary under way and clearly if the institutions of the state function - and today they are functioning in

Croatia - we hope that we shall be able to overcome the problem of both bribery and corruption."

But he acknowledged that some work still lay ahead.

According to Transparency International's corruption perception index for 2005, Croatia ranks along-side Burkina Faso, Lesotho, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Poland.

Foreign Minister Miomir Zuzul, a close ally of Prime Minister Ivo Sanader and the man tipped to lead negotiations with the EU, was forced out of the government earlier this year after he was implicated in a corruption scandal and accused of taking bribes from a businessman.

Mesic« said he would continue to look for the suspect war criminal Ante Gotovina but was adamant that the former general was no longer in Croatia.

He sought to distance Croatia's membership bid from that of Turkey and said that he was not worried about the current crisis of confidence in the EU.

"The process of European integration is a millennial undertaking," he said.

Comments by Croatia's President Stjepan Mesic, who believes that his country could complete EU accession negotiations in just two years. The EU decided on 3 October 2005 to open negotiations on Croatia's membership.

European Commission: DG Enlargement: Croatia http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/countries/detailed-country-information/croatia/index_en.htm

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