Completion of Croatia's EU accession negotiations in June is an ambitious, yet attainable goal, although no one can guarantee it now, but we all agree that we will do everything to make it happen, Hungarian Foreign Minister Janos Martonyi said at a press conference in Brussels on Tuesday following an intergovernmental accession conference at which Croatia closed negotiations in two more policy areas.
The policy areas closed are Chapter 11 - Agriculture and Rural Development and Chapter 22 - Regional Policy and the Coordination of Structural Instruments, which brought the number of closed chapters to 30 of 35. The remaining chapters are Competition Policy, Fisheries, Judiciary and Fundamental Rights, Finance and Budgetary Provisions, and Other Issues.
The Other Issues chapter is a technical one and is not subject to negotiation. All the necessary work regarding Fisheries has been agreed upon and that chapter will be closed very soon. Competition Policy and Judiciary and Fundamental Rights remain the two toughest chapters.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele said that the Commission was not planning to propose introduction of a cooperation and verification mechanism for Croatia such as those introduced for Bulgaria and Romania. Instead, the Commission would continue monitoring Croatia after the signing of the accession treaty until the completion of the ratification process.
