Hungary's Ambassador to the European Union, Peter Gyorkos, said on Friday that it was possible for Croatia to complete its EU entry talks during his country's presidency of the EU in the first half of next year.
I am deeply convinced that it is possible, Gyorkos said when speaking of the priorities of the Hungarian EU Presidency, which starts on 1 January 2011. Among top priorities of the Hungarian EU Presidency is the completion of Croatia's EU entry talks.
He added that Croatia's accession was important not only for Croatia but for the entire European Union as well as for other countries in Southeast Europe, as a signal that EU accession was possible.
Gyorkos went on to say that the Hungarian EU Presidency would continue accession talks with Turkey, expressing hope that with Iceland it would be possible not only to open some policy areas, but also to close them in the first half of next year.
He added that it was probably inappropriate to talk about expansion to Southeast Europe, which he said was entirely surrounded by EU countries, but rather about the completion of the process from 2004 and 2007, when 12 countries joined the EU.
