EC to Give Green Light for Croatia EU Accession

A Croatian blacksmith shows how to make coins during the Middle Ages at the St. Mark`s Festival on Ban Jelacic square in Zagreb, Croatia, 20 May 2011. EPA/BGNES

The European Commission considers Croatia ready for EU accession, stated an EC source Tuesday.

"European Commissioners agreed Tuesday to issue recommendations to member states that accession negotiation chapters be closed," said the source.

EC recommendations were seen as an important hurdle for Croatia to pass in the process of its entering the EU.

Tuesday the Hungarian EU Presidency reported 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, EU member states see it as necessary that Croatia be fully prepared before it actually becomes an EU member, so as not to repeat the experience of Bulgaria and Romania, who have continued to experience troubles with corruption and organized crime even after their 2007 accession.

EUobserver reports that the EU is unwilling impose a monitoring akin to the so-called Co-operation and Verification Mechanism on Corruption and Organized Crime for Bulgaria and Romania, but might rather choose to enforce a similar mechanism 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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