CROATIA: Croatia celebrated the start of EU entry talks yesterday and thanked Austria for fighting its corner during a bout of fierce political brinkmanship.
Although EU officials denied that Austria had demanded a positive decision on Croatia before giving the green light to full accession negotiations with Turkey, Croatia's newspapers showered their fellow Catholics to the north with praise.
"Danke Oesterreich!" was the headline on the 24 Sata newspaper, while others hailed an "Austrian key to the EU" and declared "Austria's backing crucial for Croatia".
The Habsburgs ruled Croat lands for nearly four centuries until 1918 from Vienna, where in 1683 they halted the westward advance of the Ottoman Turks.
Such history still resonates in Austria, a small country shorn of empire, where euroscepticism is strong.
The EU froze entry talks with Croatia in March, when chief UN war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte said it was not doing enough to catch fugitive general Ante Gotovina.
After leaving last week's meeting with Croatian leaders gloomy and tight-lipped, Ms Del Ponte delighted Zagreb late on Monday by announcing that her investigators now had the full co-operation of Croatia in their hunt for Gen Gotovina.
"I was not under pressure," she replied when asked if her judgment was part of a deal to help Austria acquiesce to full membership talks for Turkey.
Gen Gotovina (49) is charged with orchestrating the murder of at least 150 Serb civilians towards the end of the 1991-95 war.
Croatia's leaders insist he is not in the country, while Ms Del Ponte believes he is hiding in Croatia or Croat-controlled parts of Bosnia, perhaps in a Franciscan monastery.
Brussels demands that he be found before Croatia joins the EU, and the country's leaders reminded their people yesterday that there was much work ahead.
"Co-operation with the tribunal remains our international and domestic commitment," said prime minister Ivo Sanader. "We'll continue working until Gotovina is in The Hague," where the UN tribunal is located.
"We know that what lies ahead will be tough, but let me tell you, no country that joined the EU has asked to walk out and all EU citizens are better off for joining," Mr Sanader said.
Slovenia became the first former Yugoslav state to join the EU last May.
Macedonia has a stabilisation and association agreement with the bloc, a first stage towards membership that Serbia-Montenegro will soon begin negotiating.
Bosnian-Serb war crimes suspects like Gen Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic must also be caught before Belgrade can think of full EU membership
Bosnia is lagging even further behind, due mostly to the refusal of its Serb-run region to accept EU-backed plans for a unified, national police force.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn was optimistic yesterday, however, when he declared: "There is a new dawn for the western Balkans and it is a European dawn."
