EU countries should adopt a political decision on opening the Judiciary and Fundamental Rights chapter in Croatia's EU entry talks, disregarding possible tiny shortcomings which Croatia must remove to achieve full cooperation with the Hague war crimes tribunal, in order to give Croatia a chance to show its full judicial reform capacity, the European Parliament rapporteur on Croatia, Hannes Swoboda, said on Wednesday.
He was speaking to press in Brussels after meeting the Croatian state secretary for European integration, Andrej Plenkovic.
Speaking of state support to Croatia's state-owned shipyards, Swoboda called on the European Union to be realistic and give Croatia enough time.
He said Croatia must restructure the shipyards but that given the difficult economic situation it should be given more time so as not to lose industrial capacities with skilled workers. He added the Greek example showed that tourism, although important, was not enough for economic development.
Swoboda said Croatia's accession to the EU would be the best way to fight enlargement fatigue.
Plenkovic said he expected Croatia to open before the summer recess the remaining three negotiation chapters and close at least four, so that the accession negotiations could be wrapped up by the end of the year and the accession treaty signed early in 2011.
Plenkovic today wrapped up a three-day visit to Brussels. He said representatives of all European institutions and EU countries told him that Croatia must wrap up the accession negotiations as soon as possible as, he said, "the time for enlargement, because of the current crisis, is literally running out".
Plenkovic said he expected the Hague tribunal's chief prosecutor, Serge Brammertz, in his address to EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Monday to leave them enough room so that the Council of the EU could decide to open Chapter 23, which regulates the judiciary and fundamental rights.
