Croatia closed two more policy chapters in its accession negotiations with the European Union in Brussels on Monday and has now closed 17 chapters, more than half. Croatia closed negotiations on "Right of Establishment and Freedom to Provide Services" and "Social Policy and Employment" at a ministerial accession conference.
Three chapters that have been technically ready for opening for some time --"Foreign, Security and Defence Policy", "Environment" and"Fisheries" -- were not closed at today's conference due to lack ofconsent from Slovenia.
Negotiations with Croatia have entered the final stage, more than half thechapters have been closed and a task force was formed to draw up the accessionagreement, setting to work last Wednesday, said Carl Bildt, foreign minister ofthe current EU president Sweden.
The negotiations will be wrapped up soon if Zagreb is determined to resumethem soon, which I do not doubt. I am happy that as EU president we stepped upthe accession process in recent months. Some chapters still have to be dealtwith and I hope this will be done soon, so that we will be able to welcomeCroatia as a new EU member soon, Bildt told press.
Croatian Foreign Affairs and European Integration Minister GordanJandrokovic voiced confidence the accession negotiations would be wrapped up in2010, resulting in the signing of the accession agreement.
Croatia is wrapping up this year with 28 opened and 17 closed chapters. TheEuropean acquis communautaire is divided into 35 policy areas, but only 33 arebeing negotiated. Zagreb still has to close 16 chapters.
Apart from the three chapters for which Slovenia has not given its consent,Croatia still has to open negotiations on the chapter "Judiciary andFundamental Rights", the opening of which is related to cooperation withthe Hague war crimes tribunal, and the "Market Competition" chapter,which is related to state support to shipyards.
Jandrokovic regretted that the three ready chapters were not opened today,adding he expected Slovenia to unblock them soon. Neither he nor Bildt couldsay why Slovenia objects to their opening.
"This is a very unusual move on Slovenia's part. We resolved the borderissue, opting for an arbitration agreement, for an arbitral tribunal that willrule on the border, and we said then that the (accession) negotiations wereseparate from the border issue. Although I discussed this a few days ago withmy Slovenian counterpart Samuel Zbogar, I didn't receive a precise answer, butI believe Slovenia will remove its objections by the next accessionconference," said Jandrokovic.
Spain, which takes over the EU presidency on January 1, plans to hold the nextaccession conference with Croatia in late February.
Bildt, too, said he was certain Slovenia would remove its reservations soon.
He and Michael Leigh, Director General of the European CommissionDirectorate General for Enlargement, pointed to the challenges Croatia has totackle before wrapping up the EU accession negotiations -- full cooperationwith the Hague tribunal, an efficient and independent judiciary, and the fightagainst organised crime and corruption.
Leigh said the Commission did not have additional benchmarks for openingnegotiations with Croatia on the "Judiciary and Fundamental Rights"chapter, blocked over Zagreb's failure to deliver wartime artillery logbookssought by the Hague tribunal. The Commission said earlier that Croatia had met allbenchmarks set for opening this chapter.
There are no new benchmarks. Now it is important that EU countries conclude,based on the chief prosecutor's report, that there exists the required level ofcooperation with the tribunal, which was not the case before, said Leigh.
In the second half of this year, under Sweden's EU presidency, Croatiaclosed negotiations on 10 and opened them on six chapters, a record number in asix-month period. But in the first half of the year, for the first time, nochapter was either closed or opened due to Slovenia's veto over the borderdispute with Croatia.
