The Croatian leaders have stated on Monday that they will do their best in order to get the NATO accession invitation, during the Alliance’s summit to take place on early April, in Bucharest. “We hope we can do our best for the next two months, in order to get an invitation for NATO accession”, Prime Minister Ivo Sanader has stated for the press, further to a reunion of Croatian officials, when there have been discussed issues concerning the preparations for the NATO Summit in Bucharest. Sanader has also mentioned that a great deal of attention will be paid in order to promote the values shared by NATO member countries. According to polls, nearly 50% of the 4,4 million Croatians are currently opposing to their country’s accession to NATO.
The president of the country, Stipe Mesic, who is also the Supreme Commander of the Croatian army, has stated that the Croatian Army “has almost concluded with its reforms, from a structural point of view, and it is heading the right direction towards the complete fulfilment of NATO standards”. Croatia proposed itself to turn to a completely professional army and modernize its military forces before 2005, the project amounting to about 1,2 billion EUROS. The stipulated reforms include the settling of the defence budget to the level of ally criteria, about 2% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and the decrease of employees’ number within the Defence Ministry. As far as the political criteria are concerned, Croatia still has to intensify its efforts with respect to the fight against corruption fight and judicial reform and the pursuing of all measures, necessary to the return of refugees of the Balkan Wars in the 90’s.
Two weeks ago, the NATO Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, stated that there are still no guarantees that Croatia will get the accession invitation in April and that it still has to cover “the last kilometres”.
