The Hungarian EU presidency expects to wrap up Croatia’s EU entry talks in the next two weeks after closing a chapter on fisheries on Monday (6 June).
ANDREW RETTMAN|EUOBSERVER.COM
The remaining four chapters – on budget, competition, the judiciary and on "any other business" – are to be concluded by 21 June, when the Hungarian foreign minister, wearing his EU presidency hat, meets his Croatian counterpart at an intergovernmental conference in Brussels or Luxembourg.
EU diplomatic sources say competition and the judiciary are set to be the hardest final steps to take.
Croatia is concerned about the future of its state-supported shipyards, while 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.
France has proposed creating a special EU monitoring system for Croatian judicial reform in the interim period between closing the chapter and actual accession. But EU capitals are not keen to have a post-accession monitoring system, as with Bulgaria and Romania.
"The feeling is that either Croatia is ready and we take it in or it is not ready and we wait," the EU diplomatic contact explained.
The European Commission has set a provisional date of mid-2013 for Zagreb to complete EU entry. But the date has no official status and was chalked down only in order to help the executive calculate how much EU money it might get in the next EU framework budget.
Full article you can read on: http://euobserver.com/9/32450
