Croatia's Parliament on Friday unanimously ratified the Accession Treaty between Croatia and the European Union, and after the ratification of the document in all member-states of the 27-strong bloc, Croatia can join the Union on 1 July 2013.
All 136 MPs present at today's session voted in favour of the ratification of the treaty.
The bill to ratify the document was sent by the government to parliament on 5 March, the same day when the Constitutional Court ruled that Croatia's referendum on the country's EU membership at which two-thirds of those who went to the polls voted for the country's EU entry, had been conducted in accordance with the Constitution and laws.
The treaty was signed in Brussels on 9 December 2011, and so far, five countries have ratified it -- Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Italy and Malta.
The document, signed by Croatian President Ivo Josipovic and the then Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor and heads of state or government of the 27 EU members, was compiled in 23 official languages in the Union and in Croatian, which will become the 24th official language with Croatia's entry into the bloc.
The treaty is a result of the accession negotiations that lasted five years and eight months. The negotiations on 33 policy chapters were launched on 3 October 2005 and were brought to conclusion on 30 June 2011.
