The Committee held its twelfth meeting at the European Parliament, discussing the European Union's relations with Croatia and the state of the accession negotiations, notably judicial reform, the fight against corruption and organised crime, cooperation with the Hague war crimes tribunal, refugee return, minority issues, the impact of Croatia's accession on the countries in the region, the communication strategy, and a referendum on EU accession.

"This meeting confirmed the broad consensus of European Parliament support to Croatia's accession. It was evident from the discussion that Croatia is at the end of the road leading to the EU and I hope that we will know the accession date at the next meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Committee in Croatia in May," said co-chair Marija Pejcinovic Buric of Croatia.

The Committee co-chair from the European Parliament, Gunnar Hoekmark, said Croatia's accession was important not only for Croatia, but for the EU and the region as well.

He said the meeting was an opportunity to discuss the regional aspect of Croatia's accession and underline that everything Croatia was doing in the fight against corruption and organised crime would play a key role and be of use in future enlargement rounds.

The declaration took note of the position of the Hague tribunal's Trial Chamber of 26 July 2010 that one could not confirm with certainty the existence of artillery logs sought by the chief prosecutor.

The declaration called on the Croatian government and its interdepartmental group to nonetheless continue investing additional effort and expand their work, as suggested by the chief prosecutor, in order to provide an insight into the possible whereabouts of the sought wartime documents, voicing hope that those efforts would be praised in the chief prosecutor's next report to the UN Security Council, confirming Croatia's full cooperation with the tribunal.

The declaration called on the Council of the EU to take into consideration the Trial Chamber's decision and acknowledge full cooperation.

Alexandra Cas Granje, director for accession candidates at the European Commission's Enlargement Directorate General, said at the meeting yesterday that Croatia should do everything possible to convince the chief prosecutor that it was cooperating fully, even if that included changing the current approach. She added it would be a pity if Croatia failed because of that to meet its goal to join the EU.

Apart from members of the Croatian and European Parliaments' delegations, the meeting was attended by Croatia's Justice Minister Drazen Bosnjakovic, state secretary for European integration Andrej Plenkovic, and chief negotiator Vladimir Drobnjak.

EU president Belgium was represented by Xavier Demoulin, director general for coordination and European affairs at the Belgian Foreign Ministry.

The chairwoman of Croatia's National Committee overseeing the entry talks, Vesna Pusic, said during the discussion that "perhaps the biggest benefit" for Croatia in the entry talks was that it had managed to set up a new judiciary model, on entirely new foundations, adding that Romania was interested in the model and that Serbian President Boris Tadic was acquainted with it during a recent visit to Zagreb.

Plenkovic said Croatian public support for EU accession was growing, adding that a survey by the IPSOS-Puls agency showed that 64.29 per cent of Croatians would vote for accession and that 76 per cent would turn out at the accession referendum.

He also said that a survey made in February showed EU entry was supported by 54.42 per cent of Croatians, while a survey made last month showed support had jumped to 63.33 per cent.