EP: Most Croatian amendments rejected

EP: Most Croatian amendments rejected

Members of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament will on Monday afternoon debate a draft resolution submitted by Rapporteur David McCallister on Serbia's progress in European integration, and amendments to his first draft, which was presented to the Committee last month.

Members of the European parliament from Croatia sought to introduce amendments requiring "a correction of the border on the Danube," finding all persons who went missing during the war in Croatia, paying compensation for the members of the Croatian armed forces who were held in prison camps, and for Serbia to abandon prosecution of suspects for war crimes committed in Croatia.

But the so-called "compromise amendments" that have been agreed on do not contain most of these demands. Thus the border issue between Serbia and Croatia is not mentioned at all - likewise the right of Serbia to put on trial those accused of war crimes committed in the entire territory of the former Yugoslavia.

Instead, Serbia is "encouraged to continue its cooperation with the ICTY and intensify domestic war crimes trials, with enhanced regional cooperation so that the victims and their relatives can receive justice," said the proposed amendment.

It added that all victims of war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia and their families should receive compensation, with no specific mention of any country or nation.

Although Croatian MEPs demanded that the resolution once again condemns the Hague Tribunal's decision to release Vojislav Seselj, and the absence of "a loud condemnation of his views by official Belgrade," a compromise amendment says that "Serbian authorities should refrain from anti-European rhetoric."

Given the fact that these have already been agreed on by the main parliamentary groups, it is practically certain they will enter the final text of the resolution that will be put up for a vote at the Foreign Affairs Committee tomorrow, and before the EP plenary session in March.

According to the established procedure, Croatian MEPs have the right to request that their demands, which have not been included in the compromise amendments, be voted on separately, "but previous practices show the chance of their adoption is minimal," Tanjug said.

EP resolutions are not binding, but the European Commission and the EU Council are under obligation to take them into account when making decisions.

"Internal use"

The amendments submitted by Croatian MEPs were meant for "internal political use in Croatia" and it was not expected they would be accepted, director of the Belgrade-based Center for Foreign Affairs Aleksandra Joksimovic commented on Monday.

She said that Croatia is trying to use the Brussels agenda "to position a specific type of unsolved bilateral problems with Serbia," while it was "not expected that such requests would meet with the approval of European partners."

"The fact that a large number of amendments have either been rejected or rhetorically mitigated speaks in favor of this," said Joksimovic.

According to her, it is evident that Croatia had "sharpened" its rhetoric towards Serbia during the recent presidential election campaign, and that this trend will continue - considering that the country is moving closer to parliamentary elections.