US embassy cable - 05BRUSSELS1606

C O N F I D E N T I A L BRUSSELS 001606 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/22/2015 
TAGS: PREL, HR, ICTY, EUN, USEU BRUSSELS 
SUBJECT: EU "TASK FORCE" ON CROATIA TO MEET WITH ICTY AND 
CROATIANS ON APRIL 25 
 
REF: USEU TODAY 3/24/2005 
 
Classified By: Rick Holtzapple, PolOff, Reasons 1.4 (B/D) 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
1. (C) Commission, UK and Luxembourg Presidency officials in 
Brussels expect, and hope, that "nothing new" will come out 
of the first meeting of the EU "task force" on Croatia on 
April 26 in Luxembourg.  The UK has dropped the idea of 
presenting the Croats with a written to-do list, but will 
still endeavor to be very specific during the task force 
meetings about steps the GoC has failed to take, and that it 
must take.  Our UK contact said this was intended as much "to 
educate Luxembourg and Austria" as it was to inform the 
Croatians.  But UK PolDir Sawers plans to reinforce the 
message with the GoC during a visit to Zagreb the first week 
of May.  END SUMMARY. 
 
2. (SBU) EU leaders at their Summit on March 23, 2005, agreed 
to create a task force composed of the Luxembourg Presidency, 
the incoming British and Austrian Presidencies, the 
Commission and Javier Solana to report on Croatia's progress 
in meeting the conditions for opening accession negotiations 
with the EU.  This task force was proposed by Austria 
(Croatia's biggest booster within the EU) just days after the 
EU had postponed opening negotiations on March 17 due to 
failure by Croatia to satisfy the EU that it was "fully 
cooperating" with the International Criminal Tribunal for the 
former Yugoslavia (ICTY).  But no written or formal mandate 
was given to the group other than to consult with both ICTY 
and the GoC and then report to the General Affairs Council 
composed of EU FMs.  The decision to create a task force was 
announced by Luxembourg PM Juncker and in a subsequent press 
release, nothing more. 
 
3. (C) The Presidency has announced the task force will have 
its first meeting April 26, on the margins of an 
already-planned EU-Croatia Association Council.  The task 
force will meet separately, first with ICTY prosecutor Carla 
Del Ponte, and then with Croatian PM Ivo Sanader.  But 
participants in the task force say they know little more than 
that.  A Commission official involved told us, "The entire 
set-up is a bit awkward.  We don't expect, or want, much of 
anything to come out of this."  Both the Commission and the 
UK will be lobbying to keep any results from this session as 
low-key as possible, pushing for a report by cable (COREU) to 
member states afterward, rather than including it on the 
agenda of the May 23 or June 13 GAERCs.  They expect the 
Austrians will push for a GAERC discussion in May.  Political 
Directors of the five EU participants will meet on April 25 
to try and agree on the task force's procedures and 
objectives. 
 
4. (C) Commission, UK and Luxembourg Presidency contacts have 
all stressed with us that this task force has no mandate from 
the broader EU to negotiate with Croatia or even to deliver 
any message beyond the one previously issued by the European 
Council -- accession negotiations can only begin when Croatia 
is fully cooperating with the ICTY.  Commission and UK 
contacts report that back channel contacts with the ICTY 
prosecutor's office indicate she will have no progress to 
report by the Croatians since her last presentation to the EU 
in March. 
 
5. (C)  The UK, while no fan of the whole task force idea, 
has been examining ways it might be able to use it to prod 
Zagreb in to doing the necessary and finding Gotovina.  The 
UK floated with other task force members the idea of giving 
the Croatians an illustrative, but not necessarily 
comprehensive, list of additional steps Zagreb should take to 
cooperate with the ICTY.  The Luxembourg Presidency and 
Enlargement Commissioner Rehn both rejected this, saying the 
task force had no EU approval for such a list, and fearing it 
would encourage the Croats to focus on just those tasks 
rather than on delivering Gotovina.  Our UK contact said, 
Austria and Solana's staff did support the idea, "but for the 
wrong reasons." 
 
6. (C) The UK nonetheless plans to be quite specific in its 
oral presentation at the task force session with Sanader. 
The purpose, our contact said, was as much "to educate 
Luxembourg and Austria" on the many ways in which Croatia 
could be doing more, as it was to convince the GoC to step up 
its efforts.  UK PolDir John Sawers would then be traveling 
to Zagreb the following week to go over these issues in 
greater detail with the GoC.  Our Brussels contact did not 
have specific details about what would be on the UK list. 
 
MCKINLEY 
.