Ces négociations débuteront au printemps prochain à condition que l'ancienne République yougoslave coopère avec le Tribunal pénal international de La Haye

Au deuxième jour du sommet de Bruxelles, historique pour la Turquie et l'Union européenne, les Vingt-Cinq ont annoncé l'ouverture de négociations d'adhésion avec la Croatie en avril 2005, à condition que l'ancienne République yougoslave coopère avec le Tribunal pénal international de La Haye. Les dirigeants de l'Union européenne entendent obtenir l'arrestation du général Ante Gotovina et son transfert vers le Tribunal pénal international pour l'ex-Yougoslavie. La Croatie espérait obtenir sans condition l'ouverture de ces discussions. Elle souhaiterait adhérer à l'UE dès 2007, mais les diplomates jugent plus réalistes une entrée en 2009.

Le projet de communiqué du conseil européen de Bruxelles constate également, et réaffirme, que les négociations d'adhésion avec la Roumanie et la Bulgarie sont achevées et que les traités d'adhésion devront être signés en avril 2005 pour une entrée effective au 1e r janvier 2007. D'ici là, l'Union européenne a réitéré son intention de surveiller de près les progrès des deux pays, dans le domaine judiciaire notamment.

Concernant la suite des discussions avec la Turquie, les dirigeants de l'Union européenne tentaient d'arracher vendredi un accord avec le Premier ministre turc Recep Tayyip Erdogan sur l'ouverture de négociations d'adhésion le 3 octobre 2005, qui bute sur le problème de la reconnaissance de Chypre.

International Herald Tribune, 17/12/2004
EU-Croatia talks may stir change in Balkans
Membership seen as regional incentive

By Judy Dempsey

European Union agreement to start membership talks with Croatia could have far-reaching implications for the rest of the Balkans, according to officials and diplomats in Zagreb.

If the negotiations are successful, it would demonstrate to other governments in the region how a country deeply involved in the Balkan wars of the 1990s can deal with the past, democratize and restore relations with its former foes.

EU leaders meeting in Brussels are expected to decide on Friday to open accession negotiations with Croatia, probably setting April 2005 as a starting point. Croatia, with a population of 4.5 million, hopes to enter the EU in 2007, at the same time as Bulgaria and Romania, although diplomats say 2009 is more realistic.

Although the Balkan region is still plagued by corruption and high unemployment, as well as a reluctance to embrace economic and judicial reform, officials from both Croatia and Serbia - once hardened enemies - say the prospect of EU membership could be the single most important incentive for introducing change.

As a condition of the start of negotiations, EU leaders want the Zagreb government to do everything possible to deliver Ante Gotovina, a former general, to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

The court, formally the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, indicted Gotovina in 2001 for war crimes against Croatian Serbs, including the killing of at least 150 Serbs from Krajina and responsibility for the deportation of 200,000 members of the Serb minority.

Since then, Croatian officials have told The Hague they cannot find Gotovina.

On Thursday, however, shortly before the EU summit meeting was due to begin, Croatia's prime minister, Ivo Sanader, vowed to cooperate fully with the tribunal, Reuters reported.

"I am going to say very clearly that Croatia is fully cooperating" with the court, Sanader told reporters in Brussels. "We are fully committed to this cooperation."

This marks a big change in Croatia, particularly since Sanader is from the Croatian Democratic Union party, locally called the HDZ.

Under former President Franjo Tudjman, who died in December 1999, the Croatian Democratic Union party was a staunchly nationalist party that tried repeatedly during the Balkan wars of the 1990s to expand Croatia into western Herzegovina in Bosnia, while Slobodan Milosevic, then Serbia's president, tried to expand Serbia into eastern and northern Bosnia.

Sanader, elected over a year ago, has managed to defy the critics and hard-liners in his party by pressing ahead with economic reforms required to meet certain EU criteria before accession negotiations can begin.

Against the odds and considerable opposition, he has started to make Croatia look outward.

"It is hard to explain the changes," said the deputy foreign minister, Hido Biscevic, who is not a member of any political party. "We made a decision to move toward Europe. This meant addressing our relations with Serbia. It meant treating the Serb minority in our country without discrimination. It meant allowing refugees who fled during the war to return. It meant building homes for them. It meant returning property to Serbs. We are now doing all these things."

For several years, these issues, along with the Gotovina case, dogged Croatia's relations with the EU in a way that only helped the nationalists.

"Some in the HDZ did not want change because it meant confronting the past and the problems arising from the wars," Biscevic said. "Besides, they would lose their influence."

A few months into the job, Sanader surprised the old guard in his party by shaking up the leadership in an attempt to nudge the HDZ toward becoming a more European-type conservative party.

Then last month Sanader went to Belgrade, making the first visit to the Serbian capital by a Croat head of government since Yugoslavia broke up in 1991. The sooner "Croatia becomes an EU member state," he promised his hosts, "the faster Serbia and Montenegro will join."

Sanader has also started changing the top tier of Croatia's intelligence services.

Croatian officials who requested anonymity said they would not be surprised if hard-liners in the intelligence services and Sanader's party had withheld information from the government and The Hague over Gotovina's whereabouts.

"We are not looking for scapegoats to explain why we have not caught Gotovina," a Croatian official said. "You must remember he is seen by many as a hero who defended our country."

Under pressure from Theodor Meron, president of the UN tribunal in The Hague, Sanader recently replaced the head of counterintelligence and will put all the security and intelligence services under a special supervisory board.

For experts trying to prepare Croatia for EU negotiations, the Gotovina problem will not go away.

"It is always in the background," said Tamara Obradovic, deputy minister for European integration, who since 1999 has been trying to prepare Croatia for membership talks.

"Still, once we get the date to start negotiations with the EU, it will be a signal for the region as a whole," Obradovic said. "It will also be a real twist in history. Croatia always saw itself as being different from the region. And now it is tying itself toward the region."