Croatian PM urges EU to reform itself

STRASBOURG, France, Oct 2 (Reuters) EU membership candidate Croatia today told the European Union it should practice what it preaches by reforming itself, even as it demands major change in would-be member states.

Prime Minister Ivo Sanader told the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe that the European Union should by 2008 carry out reforms that would make it easier for the 25-nation bloc to function with new members.

Romania and Bulgaria are due to join the European Union next January and Croatia, which opened EU membership talks last year, hopes to join around 2010.

''The European Union is asking candidate members to carry out immense reforms,'' Sanader said. ''It should on its side carry out its own reforms and we hope that it will have finished them between now and 2008.

''If that is the case, then I don't see any problem for Croatia or other members, as soon as they have met all the criteria (for entry), of course,'' he added.

EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on September 22 that the European Union would require institutional reform before it can further expand.

Worries about the pace of expansion and the EU's own capacity to absorb new members have placed big question marks over how soon any more countries will be able to join in the wake of last year's rejection by French and Dutch voters of the proposed EU constitution.

Reuters SBA VP0235