"Croatia will block Serbia at cost of self-isolation"

"Croatia will block Serbia at cost of self-isolation"

BRUSSELS -- Croatia has suffered a defeat in the EP in its efforts to use amendments to a resolution on Serbia to impose conditions for the country's EU integration.

However, this does not mean that Croatia will give up on its efforts to block Serbia, "despite the risk of diplomatic isolation," Brussels-based analysts have been quoted as saying.

The EP Foreign Affairs Committee earlier this week rejected attempts of Croatian MEPs to include a series of demands to a non-binding resolution on Serbia related to bilateral issues - primarily the threat to block Serbia's EU integration bid unless the country scrapped a law that gives it the right to put on trial Croats accused of war crimes committed in Croatia.

However, observers in Brussels warn that Croatia could vote against the opening of chapters with Serbia in the European Council. Senior analyst with the Brussels-based European Stability Initiative (ESI) Alexandra Stiglmayer believes that Croatia will take advantage of this possibility.

She noted that there is no outvoting in the European Council, "so each member has the right to veto." Stiglmayer also Tanjug and using bilateral issues to set conditions was "an enormous problem for the EU, and it does not have effective tools to prevent it."

She remarked that Croatia was blocked by Slovenia during the process of joining the organization, and that Slovenia eventually had to give in under pressure from other member-states.

"We'll see if in the case of Serbia Croatia will find itself under the same kind of pressure," Stiglmayer said.

A senior official of the European Commission, who wished to remain anonymous, told Tanjug on Tuesday that...