Croatia can complete its EU accession talks when it has met all closing benchmarks for the policy area No. 23, Judiciary and Fundamental Rights, and the European Commission will assess its progress in that area in the first quarter of 2011, Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele said on Tuesday.
The Commission believes that the talks should be completed once Croatia has met the closing benchmarks, notably those regarding the Judiciary and Fundamental Rights policy area, including the fight against corruption, which will remove the need for the EU to consider introducing a cooperation and verification mechanism after its accession, Fuele said reading out a conclusion the EC adopted earlier in the day.
The EC has introduced the verification mechanism for Bulgaria and Romania, for which it was established that they were not entirely prepared for EU membership at the time they joined the EU in 2007. The mechanism is used to monitor how the two countries are meeting their obligations.
The Commission will assess Croatia's progress on the policy area No. 23 in the first quarter of 2011, the Enlargement Commissioner said.
The EC on Tuesday adopted Progress Reports for all candidate countries and potential candidates as well as the Enlargement Strategy and main challenges for the period from 2010 to 2013.
Before the adoption of the reports, Fuele said that Croatia's membership in the EU was in the offing.
The last 100 metres of a marathon are always the hardest. The country should be able from day one of its EU membership to fully assume the rights and obligations arising from it. We are confident that Croatian politicians and society as a whole will unite in their efforts to complete reforms that remain to be carried out in order to achieve that goal as soon as possible, said Fuele.
In the conclusions of the Enlargement Strategy the EC said that full cooperation with the Hague war crimes tribunal remained a requirement for Croatia's progress throughout the accession process, in line with the Negotiating Framework.
In its Progress Report on Croatia, the EC gives a detailed overview of everything Croatia has done over the past year.
In the introduction to its Enlargement Strategy the EC says that "negotiations with Croatia have entered their final stage, demonstrating to all enlargement countries that accession can become a reality, provided the necessary conditions are fulfilled."
"Croatia has made steady progress towards meeting the criteria for membership since starting accession negotiations in October 2005. Croatia meets the Copenhagen political criteria. As regards the economic criteria, Croatia is a functioning market economy," the EC says.
In the part of the strategy focusing on achievements in individual policy areas, most attention is dedicated to the policy area No. 23, Judiciary and Fundamental Rights, with emphasis on a track record and the fulfilment of benchmarks, which EC officials mention on almost every occasion.
"Croatia needs to meet outstanding closing benchmarks in the field of judiciary and fundamental rights, in particular building up the necessary track records as regards the independence and efficiency of the judiciary, the fight against corruption and organised crime, respect for and protection of minorities, including refugee return, war crimes trials and full cooperation with the ICTY including settling the issue of access for ICTY to documents."
As regards the policy area No. 8, Competition Policy, which is considered the second most difficult after Judiciary and Fundamental Rights, the EC says that Croatia "needs to adopt restructuring plans for the shipyards, in line with the acquis."
Croatia has made good progress towards meeting the conditions for the closure of the negotiating chapters with financial implications (agriculture and rural development; regional policy and coordination of structural instruments; financial and budgetary provisions), but it needs to sustain efforts to fully establish the administrative structures required for the management and control of EU funds, reads the strategy.
The EC also says in the strategy that it will continue to monitor the implementation of commitments until accession, by using all available instruments, including peer assessments and structures under the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, and that it will regularly present its Monitoring Reports.
