The Commission will adopt the so-called enlargement package which contains progress reports on all candidates and potential candidates for EU membership and the enlargement strategy for next year. It will also publish a formal opinion on Croatia's accession as one of the procedural steps in the preparation of the accession treaty for signing.

The progress report on Croatia will be the last one given that it concluded accession negotiations in June and that after the signing of the accession treaty, due on December 19, it will be awarded the status of an acceding country. In the autumn of 2012, the Commission will release a comprehensive report on the results of monitoring, which is being conducted from the conclusion of the accession negotiations until the country's entry into the EU on July 1, 2013.

The progress report on Croatia will reflect the fact that the negotiations are over. The report is very favourable, but that does not mean that everything is perfect. The Commission will continue closely monitoring Croatia's progress in the implementation of reforms, said a senior Commission official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

In its opinion on Serbia's application for EU membership, the Commission will recommend awarding candidate status to Serbia, but Belgrade will have to meet certain conditions regarding its relations with Kosovo before it is given a date for the start of membership negotiations.

We believe that Serbia deserves candidate status, and a recommendation for the start of negotiations is contingent on progress in dialogue with Kosovo and the normalisation of the situation in northern Kosovo, the official said.

The Commission's recommendation does not mean that the candidate status will be approved automatically, and the matter will be decided by the member states at a summit on December 9.

The Commission will invite the Council of the EU to set a date for the start of accession negotiations with Montenegro, which received candidate status last year, the Commission official said.

As for Bosnia and Herzegovina, this year's report should be called a report on stagnation rather than on progress, the same source said.

The situation in Albania is not much better, where the opposition boycotted the work of parliament until recently.

Kosovo is expected to draw up a comprehensive strategy for the north of the country where Serbs are in a majority. The Commission official said that Pristina should try to win over the Serb population in the north, as is the case with other Serb enclaves in Kosovo.

This year too the Commission intends to recommend opening negotiations with Macedonia, which was awarded candidate status in 2005, but which has not begun negotiations because of a dispute over its name with Greece. Negotiations are unlikely to begin until a mutually acceptable solution has been found.

The Commission says that in future accession negotiations it will use the experience it has gained in the negotiations with Croatia.

One of the lessons learned is that negotiations in Chapter 23 (Judiciary and Fundamental Rights) and Chapter 24 (Justice, Freedom and Security) should be opened at the start of negotiations and closed at the very end of the process, the Commission official said.

The two chapters cover areas relating to the rule of law, the management of the EU's external borders, police cooperation among the member states, the fight against organised crime, and judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters. The EU insists on the true implementation of reforms in practice and seeks proof of their implementation, which takes certain time. That's why it will try to ensure that negotiations in those chapters are opened as soon as possible so that a candidate country will be able to show convincing results by the end of the negotiating process, the official said.