Despite receiving official EU candidate status, membership talks were derailed for months because of his continued fugitive status, even as the Croatian government insisted it was doing all it could to find him.
Uprkos tome što je zvanično dobila status kandidata, pregovori o članstvu odloženi su na nekoliko meseci zbog nehapšenja Gotovine, iako je Zagreb sve vreme insistirao da radi sve što je u njegovoj moći da ga pronađe.