Croatia to Close EU Accession Talks in Mid-Year

Croatian PM Jadranka Kosor and European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek at the European Economic Congress in Katowice, Poland, 16 May 2011. Photo by EPA/BGNES

The Hungarian EU Presidency has stated it hopes to finalize the accession negotiations with Croatia before the expiration of its term in the end of June.

Next Monday the chapter on fisheries is expected to be closed, with 4 more – budget, competition, judiciary, and additional matters – to be concluded by June 21.

EU diplomatic sources say competition and the judiciary are set to be the hardest final steps to take, writes Euobserver.com.

According to the online edition, in the case of Croatia "EU countries are worried that problems with high-level corruption could see the EU take in another Bulgaria or Romania - two countries deemed in hindsight to have joined the Union prematurely in 2007 due to ongoing judicial shortfalls."

It is not clear whether the EU will impose a monitoring akin to the so-called Co-operation and Verification Mechanism on Corruption and Organized Crime for Bulgaria and Romania, but a similar mechanism might be introduced in the interim before Croatia's actual accession.

At this stage, the provisional date for accession is the middle of 2013, but it has no official status.

Recent opinion studies within the country have shown Croats growing ever more eurosceptic.

The April Hague sentencing of Croatian generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac for war crimes committed during the Yugoslav war provoked thousands to come out in anti-EU protests across the country.

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