Assistant Minister and National NATO Co-ordinator Pjer Šimunović led Croatian delegation at NATO SPCR meeting in Brussels

In said document, Croatia lays out the precise timeframe for the completion of the remaining processes of adaptation to NATO systems, procedures and standards, before and after entering the membership. The timeframe encompasses political, economic, defence, military, security, legal, and resource issues, with the aim of continuing with and strengthening Croatia’s contribution to meeting the goals and tasks of the Alliance.

NATO representatives favourably described the document, with certain suggestions and comments by member countries to be incorporated into the final version of the Timetable, which Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Gordan Jandroković will attach with his letter to NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. In that letter he will confirm Croatia’s readiness to fulfil all of the membership obligations and express hope that Croatia would join NATO.

This creates the preconditions for Croatia to be invited 9 July 2008 to participate in the meeting of the North Atlantic Council, at which permanent representatives of the NATO members will sign the Protocol on NATO Enlargement onto Croatia, after which Croatian representatives will join the activities of the Council and other NATO bodies. What follows is the ratification of the Protocol in the members’ national parliaments and the decision on NATO accession by the Croatian Parliament, after which Croatia would become a full members of the Alliance.

Following the invitation received at the NATO Summit in Bucharest, Croatia successfully completed two rounds of accession negotiations, at which it assumed the obligations stemming from the Washington Agreement and expressed its readiness to take part in the joint defence system, as well as confirmed its active contribution to the peace and stability of the Euro-Atlantic area.