EU ‘unjust’ to hit Croats for letting general escape

Date: 31/03/05

Hans-Gert Pöttering criticised EU leaders' decision to postpone accession negotiations with Croatia and compared it unfavourably with their stance on Turkey.

The EPP-ED group leader said that the decision on Croatia was unfair. "The heads of government decided to start negotiations with Turkey on 3 October although there are still [in Turkey] torture and many other things that are not agreeable. But in the case of Croatia, it is just one problem, the apprehending of General [Ante] Gotovina, and I think that this is unfair."

He said it was a problem that the EU was relying "totally" on the advice of Carla del Ponte, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. "I think that this is unjust," he said.

Pöttering said del Ponte had "certainly a position which is from the tribunal, but the EU should have a broader perspective".

He said that if the centre-right opposition, the CDU and the CSU, won the 2006 elections in Germany, Turkey's bid to join the EU would be affected. "Negotiations with Turkey will not necessarily stop, but I think that the result of the negotiations will be different, because the CDU and the CSU, like the UMP in France, are in favour of a privileged partnership with Turkey, but not of membership.

"The decision from the European Council in December was that negotiations with Turkey are an open-ended process. This means that at the end it could be membership or any other possibility. So I am convinced that the CDU/CSU will be in favour of a privileged partnership."

Hans-Gert Pöttering, leader of the European People's Party group in the European Parliament criticised the decision of EU leaders to postpone accession negotiations with Croatia because of its alleged lack of cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and compared it unfavourably with their stance on Turkey.

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