Croatia’s Minister of Justice Ivan Simonovic hopes to be able to open, by the end of this year, the chapter on ‘Judiciary and fundamental rights’, the last outstanding point to be settled by Zagreb in its EU accession negotiations. “I think the blockade will be lifted by the end of this year [...] It’s the last mile [of the marathon] and we want to run it as fast as possible,” he said in an interview with Europolitics.

In its progress report published on 14 October (see Europolitics3839), the European Commission called on Croatia to speed up its reforms in this sector, criticising in particular the lack of independence and effectiveness of justice, as well as the efficiency of the fight against corruption and organised crime. The Commission wants to be all the more rigorous as it was accused of having been too relaxed with Romania and Bulgaria prior to their entry into the EU in 2007.

“Sometimes the language that reports use is not the most pleasant,” acknowledged Simonovic. “But criticism has positive elements. The suggestions made in the report are going in the same direction as our practical action and most of the things suggested are already in the pipeline.”

ACCELERATION OF PROCEDURES

Therefore, “the backlog of cases [more than 800,000] has been reduced by 8% compared to last year. Four years ago, one in every four cases ended due to the statute of limitations. Last year, the respective figure was only 2.8%”. Concerning the judiciary’s independence, the Croatian parliament is to adopt, by the end of November, a law guaranteeing the independence of magistrates with regard to their taking office and their promotion, “which will be based on merit”. Furthermore, members of the disciplinary authority, the State Judicial Council, will no longer be appointed by the parliament but elected by their peers.

Regarding corruption which, according to the Commission, remains “widespread,” the minister considers that its level is “already lower than in a number of member states” and that, if the perception of corruption is that it is “high,” it is because there are more and more proceedings being undertaken at all levels of Croatian society (entrepreneurs, judges, professors). For the first time, a high-ranking politician, former Defence Minister Berislav Roncevic, saw his immunity lifted by parliament in order to be prosecuted in a case concerning the purchase of military trucks. “It’s a sign that today nobody is above the law,” according to Simonovic, who is also counting on the “preventive” effect of a new law anticipating the seizure of assets of persons accused of corruption or organised crime.

ICTY OBLIGATIONS

Lastly, Croatia must settle the question of cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Since July 2007, ICTY Prosecutor Serge Brammertz has been asking for archives to be handed over on the August 1995 military operation ‘Storm’, which ended in the disappearance of the transient Republic of Serbian Krajina and put an end to the Croatian war (1991-1995). These documents could be used in the framework of the trial of three former Croatian Generals - Ante Gotovina, Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac - who have, since March 2008, been on trial for their involvement in war crimes at the time of this operation. Zagreb defends itself by assuring that it did what it could to get its hands on these archives. “Following the suggestions of Mr Brammertz, we are carrying out an additional investigation. The most optimistic scenario is that when reporting in written form to the Security Council by mid-November, Mr Brammertz will already be more satisfied with our cooperation,” explained Simonovic. Croatia considers that, even if it does not eventually find these documents, it will have met its obligations in terms of cooperation by piecing together their “chain of custody” and by whom and how it was shattered. “Of 845 requests for cooperation, we already fulfilled 844 and a half. We want to free ourselves from this - it would be absurd for us to prevent our EU accession process,” pleads Simonovic. n