Croatia is planning to open all policy chapters within its European Union accession negotiations by August and it also plans to provisionally close most of them by that time, the head of the national committee monitoring the country's EU membership talks, Vesna Pusic, said on Wednesday after the committee's session.
The current Spanish EU Presidency has set the goal of opening all the policy chapters in negotiations with Croatia, Pusic told the press.
The Spanish EU chairmanship expires on 30 June, and Spain will be succeeded by Belgium.
"When it comes to the committee, we should close all chapters, except three or four, by the summer recess in August," Pusic said.
Out of 33 policy chapters subject to negotiations, Croatia has so far opened 30 and provisionally closed 17.
"Negotiations on the Competition Policy chapter could be launched in April," Pusic said, adding that Croatia expected Brussels to send in the coming weeks an invitation to Zagreb to submit its negotiating position on that chapter.
Pusic expects the chapter Judiciary and Fundamental Rights to be opened this spring. The COREPER (Committee of Permanent Representatives in the European Union) unblocked this chapter on 18 February.
At the intergovernmental accession conference a day after, Croatia and the EU started negotiations on Fisheries and Environment, two policy chapters which Slovenia had blocked for a long time.
