It is well known that Britain perceives Europe as well as European Union aspirants in a different way, Croatian President Ivo Josipovic said commenting on statements that after some German politicians expressed doubt about Croatia's readiness to become an EU member, now similar assessments came from Great Britain.
"What is emphasised here is not the British official policy, Britain supports us. It has started the process of the ratification of the Croatia-EU treaty and I do not expect any problem. We should not, more than others, accentuate some voices which are, perhaps, less in our favour," Josipovic told the national broadcaster HTV on Saturday in a break of a meeting of the National Forum for European Croatia.
"We must focus on fulfilling the conditions, those 10 tasks which will require more efforts from us. The entry (into the EU) is for me unquestionable. We know, as I have said, that we must complete the tasks ahead of us, but Croatia will be an EU member on 1 July," Josipovic said.
Some Croatian media reported on Saturday that a British parliamentary committee did not deem Croatia ready for the EU membership and urged the continuation of monitoring.
Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic today responded to media reports with a statement that Great Britain fully supported Croatia on its road towards the EU.
Pusic told the Croatian Radio today that this had been confirmed by her recent official visit to London.
The latest speculations about the process of the ratification of the Croatia-EU accession treaty having encountered problems in Great Britain was today interpreted by Pusic as part of one-upmanship among political protagonists in Croatia.
The European Scrutiny Committee of the British Parliament's House of Commons discussed Croatia's EU membership bid and assessed that post-accession monitoring would be necessary.
Given that desirable goals have not yet been attained such as an autonomously functioning, stable judiciary, which is able to detect and sanction conflicts of interests, corruption and organised crime and preserve the rule of law; and a legal system capable of implementing the laws in an independent and efficient way, it is doubtful that it will be prior to accession," according to the minutes of the committee's meeting.
"Yet, despite the demonstrable ineffectiveness of post-accession monitoring, that now seems the only option open to the EU," it was said during the debate held in October.
"Croatia needs to ensure that a strong system is in place to prevent corruption in state-owned companies. The Conflict of Interest Commission needs to be established without delay. The concept of political accountability and zero tolerance of corruption needs to be strengthened," according to the minutes.
"Logically, the House should not be asked to ratify the accession treaty until the pre-accession monitoring has been completed, and it has been demonstrated that Croatia is indeed fully prepared. In the meantime, we would have recommended that this latest monitoring report be debated on the Floor of the House, in order to help with that final judgement. That option, however, is not open to us, since the Government has already begun the ratification process," according to the document.
