Justice Minister Ivan Simonovic said on Monday that Croatia's accession to the European Union would not be delayed over the inefficient judiciary, as claimed by some media.
Simonovic made the statement while presenting the results of two projects as part of judicial reform, dismissing such media reports as political speculations.
Simonovic said the only serious problem that had arisen in recent time was the issue of cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague over Croatia's failure to deliver all the military documents requested by prosecutors in the trial of three Croatian generals.
The minister said he expected that a policy chapter dealing with the judiciary and fundamental rights would nevertheless be opened in June, hoping that within weeks the European Commission would send its draft negotiating position to the member states.
It is critical that the member states adopt the negotiating position quickly enough so that it can be adopted in June and that negotiations can start, he said.
As regards the requested military documents, Simonovic said he believed progress had been made. "The tribunal has demanded delivery of the documents or a convincing explanation as to what happened to them and who is responsible, which I think has been done."
Asked if cooperation with the Hague tribunal was a political or a judicial issue, Simonovic said it was a combination of the two, adding that the member states decide whether the chapter will be opened by taking into account political criteria, and one of the political criteria is "their assessment of one aspect of international judicial cooperation."
On the subject of the agreement on the enforcement of court decisions in criminal matters between Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, Simonovic said his ministry had received 16 court requests for the enforcement of prison sentences against people who had been convicted by Croatian courts but who had used their dual citizenship to escape to the neighbouring country. He added that six of the requests had already been sent to the Bosnian authorities.
Bosnia-Herzegovina expects that it will take from three to four months to complete the necessary procedure, and Simonovic said he would not be unhappy if all the requests were dealt with in six months. He added that Croatia had received no such requests from Bosnia-Herzegovina.
