Press Release: Major step in EU Balkan stabilisation efforts: Commission proposes Croatian association with the EU

Two days after President Mesic's visit to Brussels, the Commission adopted today a proposal to the Council on the opening of negotiations for a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the Republic of Croatia. The Commission's decision represents a major step forward in EU/Croatia bilateral relations, following the election of a new political leadership advocating radical political and economic reform in Croatia. The Commission hopes that negotiations could start before the EU-Balkan Summit in Zagreb, November 2000.