| Author (Corporate) | BBC |
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| Series Title | BBC News |
| Series Details | 31.10.08 |
| Publication Date | 31/10/2008 |
| Content Type | News |
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End in sight for Croatia’s EU accession talks The European Commission held out the prospect on Wednesday that Croatia could conclude its European Union accession talks by the end of next year, but demanded more progress in structural economic reform and the fight against organised crime. Olli Rehn, the EU’s enlargement commissioner, said the Commission hoped that Croatia would be able to complete all the 35 chapters, or policy areas, that form part of the accession process by December 2009. EU diplomats said this would enable Croatia to become the bloc’s 28th member in 2011, assuming that all other countries ratified Croatia’s accession treaty in the meantime. Mr Rehn stressed that the Commission’s timetable was “indicative” only, and depended on Croatia’s ability to meet the challenges that lay ahead. “This is an encouragement, but not a blank cheque. The ball is now in Croatia’s court,” he told reporters. The areas that most concern the EU are Croatia’s modest efforts at judicial reform, including the fight against corruption and organised crime, and the slowness of its steps to restructure its shipbuilding industry to meet EU competition rules. Many EU governments were alarmed when a car bomb exploded in Zagreb on October 23, killing two people, including the editor of a Croatian weekly newspaper. It was the latest of several unexplained violent incidents in Croatia this year. In its annual report on Croatia’s membership talks, published on Wednesday, the Commission said: “Overall, reforms in the judiciary continue but only at a relatively slow pace . . . “While the total number of corruption cases investigated so far has increased, the actual number of prosecutions remains low . . . Concrete results are needed in the fight against organised crime, which is a matter of concern.” The Commission report also contained criticism of Croatia’s economic reforms, saying: “An ad hoc approach to economic policies has often prevailed, and a deepening of structural reforms has not figured among the government’s top priorities. The structural reform agenda has moved slowly, and there has often been a gap between legislative intent and actual implementation.” The report noted that relations between Croatia and Slovenia, another former Yugoslav republic that joined the EU in 2004, were still under occasional strain because of disputes related to unresolved border issues. Mr Rehn said these disputes were a bilateral matter between Croatia and Slovenia, rather than an issue affecting the Commission’s negotiations with Croatia, but urged the two countries to settle them soon. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008 |
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| Source Link | http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7702990.stm |
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| Countries / Regions | Croatia |
