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Council of the EU welcomed the EC Enlargement package
10.12.2008, 15:03
EU foreign ministers welcomed on December 8, 2008 the enlargement document, which was published by the European Commission in early November, and took note of the recommendations. In this document, the European Commission concluded that Croatia could finalize its accession negotiations by the end of next year provided that it meets the requested conditions. The European Commission also published the indicative and conditional roadmap for finalizing the negotiations as an annex to the document.
European Commission made a recommendation to the Council of the EU to establish an ad-hoc working group in charge of drafting the Treaty of Accession of Croatia and announced that, if Croatia continues to achieve progress in its preparations for EU membership, proposal of the financial package for its EU accession would be presented in mid 2009. This document would define the amount of resources available to Croatia upon EU accession from Cohesion and Structural funds.
According to the conclusions, the Council believes that Croatia's progress towards the final stage of negotiations primarily depends on finalizing the necessary political, economic, legislative and administrative reforms. Therefore, the Council finds the indicative and conditional roadmap drafted by the European Commission to be a useful tool which will help Croatia with the remaining work needed for finalizing the negotiations.
Council of the EU states that Croatia should accelerate its reforms, and that significant progress is expected in the fundamental fields such as judicial and administrative reforms, fight against corruption and organized crime, return of refugees, prosecution of war crimes and economic reforms. Further effort should be invested in continuation and finalization of adoption of the acquis communautaire and its efficient implementation in practice.
Croatia should continue with the efforts in the field of good-neighbourly relations, particularly regarding the resolution of bilateral issues with the neighbouring countries, principally the border issues. The text states that the chapters, for which the technical preparations are finalized, will be opened and provisionally closed according to the routine procedure and in line with the Negotiations framework. In that context, the Council is eagerly expecting the Intergovernmental conference with Croatia, which is to take place this month and should result in further progress in negotiations.
In its conclusions, the Council of the EU is ‘congratulating Croatia on the significant efforts it undertook in the last year and the progress it achieved in general.' The negotiations are going well and have entered the crucial phase, as is pointed out in the Council's conclusions.
The Council has exchanged opinion
s on the EC communication of ‘the enlargement strategy and main challenges for the 2008-2009 period', as well as the Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Kosovo Progress Reports. It largely shares the Commission's opinions.
The Council reminds that, by achieving real progress in economic and political reforms and respecting the requested conditions and criteria, the potential candidates have to acquire EU candidate status due to their own merits, and their ultimate goal is EU membership.
More information on: Council web page
Source: http://www.delhrv.ec.europa.eu/en/content/news/id/1441