The role of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) is to establish individual responsibility rather than interpreting history, said Martin Schulz, a member of the European Parliament for the Social Democratic Party of Germany and the leader of the Socialists in the European Parliament.
In my opinion the international tribunal should not interpret history but should deal with individual cases. The case of General Gotovina is an individual case and the question is whether he is guilty or not. It is the duty of the ICTY to establish the individual responsibility, Schulz said during his visit to Zagreb on Tuesday.
He arrived in Zagreb at the invitation of the Social Democratic Party of Croatia (SDP).
Schulz, who will take over the duty of European Parliament President on 17 January 2012, added that this was his personal opinion and that he had not yet read the ICTY's verdict in the case of generals Ante Gotovina, Mladen Markac and Ivan Cermak.
I will read the entire verdict, I have a feeling that the judges were trained to stick to individual cases, he said.
According to him, Croatia was attacked by the regime of Slobodan Milosevic and had the right to defend itself.
The leader of the second largest political group (the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats) in the European Parliament also said that it was possible for Croatia to wrap up its accession negotiations with the European Union by the end of June but that he was not certain of it.
I hope that the talks can be brought to completion, but I will be clear I cannot be sure, the German politician said, adding that the latest report made by Hannes Swoboda made mention of some unresolved economic and minor border issues and public administration problems,
Schulz said that the Socialist group, consisting of 185 MEPs from 27 European Union member states, strongly supported Croatia's entry into the Union and was looking forward to the completion of the negotiations soon.
As for low support among the Croatians for their country's EU membership bid, he said he was aware of oscillations in opinion polls and that therefore it was important to emphasise that Croatia needed the EU as the strongest economic space and that the EU needed Croatia.
SDP President Zoran Milanovic said that Schulz was a friend of Croatia and that his future role in the EP would be important after Croatia completed the negotiations and the process of ratification of the accession treaty started.
On Monday, Schulz met Croatian President Ivo Josipovic and on Tuesday he met SDP parliamentarians to inform them what Croatia could expect after joining the EU.
