The said decision by the EU Council of Ministers confirms the announcement by the Greek Chair that Croatia’s application would soon be forwarded for further procedure. It also affirms the principle of individual approach to the European Union and Croatia’s dynamic progress towards integration into the Union.
Credit is thus given to Croatia’s achievements in meeting the legal, political and economic criteria for EU membership. This new stage in the relations between Croatia and the European Union certainly requires maximum efforts by all government bodies, public institutions and other relevant segments of the Croatian society in order to carry out the demanding tasks of answering thousands of questions concerning the situation in Croatia, the course of reforms and harmonisation with the EU standards, including, above all, continued democratisation, human and minority rights protection and co-operation with the Hague Tribunal.
While there is no fixed timeframe for the European
Commission to prepare its avis, the Croatian Foreign Ministry expects,
judging by the statements given by the EC’s top officials, that the
whole procedure of preparing and adopting it will take about one year.
Once the EC’s opinion has been given, the Council of Ministers will
prepare a report to serve as a basis for the European Council’s decision
on assigning to Croatia the candidate status and a possible start of
negotiations on full membership.
Until then, the success in implementing the Stabilisation and Association Agreement will remain the chief criteria in evaluating the overall performance in terms of Croatia’s EU aspirations and the target set by the Croatian Government – readiness for full membership by the end of 2006.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Croatia highly appreciates the efforts put by the Greek Chair, aimed to make the countries involved in the Stabilisation and Association Process a priority of the European Union. In this context, the decision on Croatia’s application can be considered an additional confirmation of the European perspective for all SAP countries.