EU to delay Croatia entry talks

Action by Zagreb to freeze the assets of former General and wanted war crimes fugitive, Ante Gotovina may not be enough to save Croatian EU membership talks from being postponed later this week.

Croatian state prosecutor, Mladen Bajic said the assets of indictee Ante Gotovina had been frozen, reported the Croatian news agency, HINA.

But the move which falls short of Brussels demands may be too late to save the talks planned for Thursday.

The EU is insisting that Gotovina must be handed over to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the Hague by Wednesday or the talks scheduled for Thursday will be put on ice.

EU Council president, Luxembourg’s prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker said in a statement on Monday that EU foreign ministers were still undecided on whether to begin talks on Thursday.

“There is no unanimity at this point,” said Juncker. "The conditions are not met."

"The negotiations will begin on 17 March provided that General Gotovina is transferred, and that must be done."

EU foreign ministers are against opening talks with Zagreb, until further progress on cooperating with the Hague war crimes tribunal has been made.

Gotovina turned fugitive shortly before he was indicted in 2001, and is thought to be in hiding either in Croatia or nearby Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Croatian prime minister, Ivo Sanader, in an interview with daily newspaper Vjesnik said he expected the negotiations to begin on March 17.  “The negotiations should start…because Croatia has deserved it.”

Foreign ministers will try to resolve the issue on Wednesday.

"We are going to try to find a wording for the conditions based on which the negotiations could begin," Said Juncker.

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