Croatia
External Relations
Relations with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)
Upon assuming power at the end of 2003, Prime Minister Ivo Sanader declared the cooperation with the Hague International Criminal Tribunal as a top priority of the Croatian government, not only as a way of breaking away with past Croatian Democratic Union's (Hrvatska Demokratska Zajednica – HDZ) image of a war crimes instigator and primary protector of war criminals, but also as a prerequisite for the start of the negotiation process for EU membership. However, in 2004 and 2005 the HDZ cabinet failed to persuade the international community in the sincerity of its intentions. Despite the arrest and extradition of several high-ranking Croatian army officers to The Hague and the first ever positive evaluation, openly expressed by tribunal Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte during her visit to Croatian in June of 2004, Croatian authorities remained silent on the alleged involvement of the then HDZ government in the crimes committed. Moreover, tribunal officials did not turn over some of the most important war crimes cases to be adjudicated on in Croatian courts, thus casting a shadow of doubt over the true independence of the Croatian judicial system. Still worse, rumours of government involvement in the protection of indicted suspects were boosted by the apparent failure of the so-called Action Plan, measures presented by the Croatian government in April 2005, aimed at hunting down ICTY prime suspect Gen. Ante Gotovina. While top state officials were going to great trouble explaining the upset of the measures with Gotovina’s suspected flight from Croatia, in an address to the UN Security Council on June 13th 2005 Carla Del Ponte accused Croatian authorities of obstructing the investigation against him by concealing his whereabouts, leaking confidential information to the press, and staging media campaigns designed to discredit the Tribunal.
However, the Croatian government proved its credibility when on September 29th it provided the ICTY with evidence that Ante Gotovina was hiding in Spain, where he was eventually apprehended on December 7th. As a result, Carla Del Ponte informed the EU on October 3rd that Croatia was indeed fully cooperating with the tribunal, thus fulfilling the main prerequisite for the initiation of EU accession talks.
Relations with the EU
After the positive European Commission (EC) Opinion of April 2004 on Croatia's progress towards accession, the European Council in June 2004 granted Croatia a candidate status. The European Council in December 2004 agreed on the opening of the negotiations with it on March 17th 2005 provided that Croatia demonstrates full compliance with the ICTY. However, in the absence of confirmation of such, the General Affairs and External Relations Council of March 16th 2005 decided on the postponement of the talks. ICTY Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte's positive assessment on October 3rd 2005 of Croatia's cooperation with the Tribunal resulted in a EU decision for the initiation of accession talks. The EC started the so called screening process, which would assess the compatibility of Croatian legislation with EU legislation. The screening would allow the EU to decide on the opening of individual chapters for negotiations.
Following protests on behalf of Slovenia, Italy and the EU against the Decision on the extension of the Republic of Croatia's jurisdiction over the Adriatic Sea, i.e. the establishment of a Protected Fishing and Ecological Zone, adopted by the Croatian Parliament in October 2003, in 2004 three rounds of trilateral Croatian-Slovenian-Italian talks were held. They resulted in a Decision on the amendments of the Decision on the extension of the Republic of Croatia jurisdiction over the Adriatic Sea, which postponed the implementation of the Decision for the establishment of a Protected Fishing and Ecological Zone for the EU member states, until the Agreement on fishing partnership between Croatia and the EU is signed.
Relations with Slovenia
Bilateral relations between Croatia and Slovenia are well developed at all levels of cooperation. In the years 2004 and 2005, though generally qualified as good neighbourly and on the rise, they were burdened by long-standing problems inherited from both countries’ common past, among those the lingering sea-border dispute, Croatia's decision to proclaim an ecological and fishing zone in the Adriatic, the demarcation of the land border, the management of the Krsko nuclear power plant, and the unpaid debts of the Slovenian Ljubljanska Banka to Croatian citizens.