Croatia will join the European Union in July 2013 even if it fails to fulfil its remaining obligations by then, most notably the sale of its shipyards, a senior EU envoy told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.
Paul Vandoren, the European Union's envoy to Croatia, said the bloc will continue to monitor carefully Zagreb's efforts to reform its judiciary, fight corruption and restructure its steel and shipbuilding sectors, but has no punitive mechanisms for non-compliance until Croatia joins the bloc.
"The date, July 1, 2013, is written in the accession treaty in an unconditional manner," Vandoren said. Reuters cited him as saying that the maximum the European Commission could do between now and the accession was to send "warning letters" to Croatian authorities.
"I hope this will not happen because this would put a not so positive image about Croatia to our member states... The psychological effect of the warning letters is not to be underestimated," Vandoren told Reuters.
Once Croatia is a member, other member states could activate "a number of safeguard mechanisms" if Zagreb is found in breach of the EU's internal market principles, Vandoren said but declined to elaborate.
The European Commission said on Tuesday it expected Croatia to continue complying with the commitments from its EU accession negotiations regarding the restructuring of the shipyards and to sign contracts on their privatisation before accession.
Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele's spokesman Peter Stano said the Commission would closely monitor the restructuring of Croatia's shipyards and that it expected Croatia to continue complying with its commitments.
Stano said Croatia closed negotiations on the Competition Policy chapter after committing to restructuring its ailing shipyards and that those commitments were also stated in the Accession Treaty that would soon be signed.
A protocol attached to the treaty says the European Commission can order Croatia to return all the funds it has received for the restructuring of the shipyards since March 2006 if contracts on their privatisation are not signed by the day of Croatia's accession to the EU.
Poland, which joined the EU in 2004, had the same problem - the European Commission ordered Warsaw to sell its historic shipyards or repay more then 2 billion euros of state aid.
Zagreb concluded its EU membership talks in June. On Dec. 9 it will sign the accession treaty in Brussels, which then must be ratified by all 27 member states.
Vandoren told Reuters he expected a positive outcome of the national referendum on EU membership, which Croatia will hold in January or February.
Support for EU membership is on the rise in Croatia. But many of its 4.4 million citizens are still unsure about benefits and obligations EU membership will entail, as the government launched its information campaign only in the last few months.
"We have worked hard to inform the citizens. They need to know objectively and in-depth what this is about. The EU accession is undoubtedly the most important step this country will take in the foreseeable future," Vandoren told Reuters.
