Toetredingsonderhandelingen Kroatië mogelijk binnen twee weken afgerond (en)
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The Hungarian EU presidency expects to wrap up Croatia's EU entry talks in the next two weeks after closing a chapter on fisheries on Monday (6 June).
The remaining four chapters - on budget, competition, the judiciary and on "any other business" - are to be concluded by 21 June, when the Hungarian foreign minister, wearing his EU presidency hat, meets his Croatian counterpart at an intergovernmental conference in Brussels or Luxembourg.
EU diplomatic sources say competition and the judiciary are set to be the hardest final steps to take.
Croatia is concerned about the future of its state-supported shipyards, while EU countries are worried that problems with high-level corruption could see the EU take in another Bulgaria or Romania - two countries deemed in hindsight to have joined the Union prematurely in 2007 due to ongoing judicial shortfalls.
France has proposed creating a special EU monitoring system for Croatian judicial reform in the interim period between closing the chapter and actual accession. But EU capitals are not keen to have a post-accession monitoring system, as with Bulgaria and Romania.
"The feeling is that either Croatia is ready and we take in or it is not ready and we wait," the EU diplomatic contact explained.
The European Commission has set a provisional date of mid-2013 for Zagreb to complete EU entry. But the date has no official status and was chalked down only in order to help the executive calculate how much EU money it might get in the next EU framework budget.
If all 35 chapters are closed by 21 June as predicted, the incoming Polish EU presidency will have the task of completing the final draft of the accession treaty and getting Zagreb to put pen to paper before the end of the year.
The European Parliament also has to give its formal assent and national assemblies or governments of all 27 current EU members must ratify the accession blueprint in the run-up to the mid-2013 provisional deadline.
Speaking after closing the fisheries chapter on Monday, Croatia's chief negotiator with the EU, Vladimir Drobnjak, said: "'We are very close to the finishing line. I'm certain this is not the last chapter we are closing this month."
The Hungarian EU presidency said in a statement it "will do its best in order to conclude negotiations before the end of its mandate."
Croatia began accession talks six years ago and has been working on the fisheries dossier since February 2010. Talks covered phasing out some subsistence fishing, fleet management and administrative capacity for handling EU common fishery laws.
Croatia is to become the 28th EU country at a time when the bloc is struggling with existential issues such as the future of the euro and the passport-less Schengnen zone. Romanian President Trajan Basescu in an interview with the British daily, The Telegraph, said on Monday that the EU will probably have 35 member states by 2018 - all six former Yugoslav countries as well as Moldova and Turkey.
Pope Benedict XVI on a visit to Croatia over the weekend did his bit to champion the staunchly Roman Catholic country's EU future.
"Croatia's entry into Europe is logical, right and necessary," he told reporters aboard his flight from Rome.
He warned that the EU must protect the cultural identity of smaller members, however. "There is almost a fear of a centralised bureaucracy that is too strong, of a rationalistic culture that does not take into sufficient consideration the richness and diversity of history," the pontiff noted.