EU accession

Pusic: Orban's statement intended to revive communication strategy

11.02.2011 u 23:18

Bionic
Reading

The chairwoman of the National Committee overseeing Croatia's European Union entry talks, MP Vesna Pusic, feels that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's statement that Croatia will get a date for the completion of the talks in April was aimed at reviving the communication strategy, as Croatia keeps saying that it needs a date to start communicating with citizens about EU accession.

Asked on Friday about the disagreement as to the date of the completion of Croatia's EU entry talks between Orban, whose country currently chairs the EU, and European Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele, Pusic said the European Parliament's rapporteur on Croatia, Hannes Swoboda, too, and the people who agreed with him felt it was too early to come out with a date given past experiences and the sensitivity of some EU countries.

"When the PM of the EU president country mentions that as a possibility, you can't take it back," said Pusic, who thinks the negotiations will be completed in June.

She recalled that a conclusion was adopted at a recent European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee discussion on Swoboda's report on Croatia that Croatia could complete the negotiations in June, provided it met all the benchmarks.

"It wasn't said when that would be officially decided, but that formulation was used," Pusic added.

Asked how much EU membership would cost Croatian citizens, she said that, unless they had a totally incompetent government, citizens would "benefit to such an extent we haven't had for development projects in the Croatian budget so far."

She underlined the importance of being capable of drawing European funds.

Some countries brought to the EU budget more than they drew, however, responsibility for this does not lie with the EU, but with each member country, said Pusic.