CROATIA
Pre-accession strategy
The Brussels European Council in June 2004 concluded that Croatia is a candidate country with which accession negotiations will start in early 2005 and requested the Commission to prepare a pre-accession strategy for Croatia. The Commission considers that the reinforced pre-accession strategy for candidate countries decided by the European Council in Luxembourg in December 1997 should be extended to Croatia. The elements of this strategy are outlined below.
The review procedure aimed at assessing candidate countries’ progress towards membership will start to be applied to Croatia as of 2005. This will mean that the Commission will start issuing Regular Reports on Croatia as from autumn 2005. In the context of the Stabilisation and Association Process, the Commission has already proposed a European Partnership, based on the findings of its Opinion on Croatia’s application for membership. This document will guide Croatia’s accession preparations.
Croatia as a candidate country should benefit from all three pre-accession financial instruments: Phare for institution-building and economic and social cohesion, ISPA for environment and transport, and SAPARD for rural development. The Commission will propose amendments to the regulations for these three pre-accession instruments in order to extend their scope to Croatia as of 1 January 2005. Taking into account the needs for an adequate preparation of Croatia for accession, the Commission recommends that €105 million (€80 million for Phare and €25 million for ISPA) are allocated to Croatia in 2005 and €140 million in 2006 (€80 million for Phare, €35 million for ISPA, and €25 million for SAPARD). These amounts will be financed out of the pre-accession funds available under heading 7 of the current financial perspectives. The Commission has proposed to Council to create a new pre-accession instrument (IPA), from which Croatia would benefit from 2007 onwards, building on the present pre-accession instruments Phare, ISPA and SAPARD. The amounts to be allocated to Croatia from 2007 onwards will be decided in the context of the next financial perspective.
The Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) signed with Croatia in October 2001 has now been ratified. In order to implement the trade-related aspects of the SAA, an Interim Agreement entered into force in March 2002. A Stabilisation and Association Council, Committee and Sub-Committees will be set up. The Commission proposes that the structures of the SAA be used not only to cover issues related to the implementation of the agreement, but also to serve as forums for the explanation of the acquis and review progress made by Croatia in the alignment of the acquis in line with commitments taken in the negotiations. The framework agreement allowing Croatia’s participation in Community programmes and agencies should come into force in the first half of 2005, after ratification by the EU institutions and Croatia. Croatia’s financial contribution to each programme can be partly funded by Phare.
In addition to the above mentioned elements for a reinforced pre-accession strategy, the Commission considers that an enhanced political dialogue with Croatia should continue in order to tackle the issues highlighted in the Opinion. Such issues include the relations with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, minority rights, return of refugees, judiciary reform, regional co-operation and the fight against corruption. In particular, Croatia needs to remain committed to regional cooperation within the framework of the Stabilisation and Association Process for the Western Balkans. The Commission will closely monitor these issues in regular meetings with the Croatian authorities and will keep the Council informed.
The negotiating framework
The Brussels European Council in June 2004 decided that “in advance of negotiations with Croatia, the Council will agree a general negotiating framework, taking full account of the experience of the fifth enlargement process”. The Commission suggests that the framework should build on the following principles:
- The negotiations with Croatia should be guided by the conditions for accession as defined at the Copenhagen European Council in 1993. These conditions are adequate tools for measuring a candidate country’s preparedness for meeting the obligations of membership, and provide for clear guidance in the reform process.
- Progress in the negotiations will be fully dependent on the sustainability of political reforms and Croatia’s fulfilment of its obligations in respect of regional cooperation with the other countries of former Yugoslavia and other related international obligations such as cooperation with ICTY.
- In line with the Treaty on European Union and the Constitution for Europe, the Commission will recommend the suspension of negotiations in the case of a serious and persistent breach of the principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and the rule of law on which the Union is founded. The Council should be able to decide on such recommendation by a qualified majority of Member States.
- The negotiations will be conducted on the principle of own merits. Any transitional arrangements should be limited in scope and time and not have significant impact on competition or the functioning of the internal market.
- Immediately after the formal opening of the accession negotiations with Croatia, the Commission will organise a formal process of examination of the acquis, called screening, in order to explain it to the Croatian authorities and to obtain preliminary indications of the issues that will most likely come up in the negotiations.
- Once a chapter has been screened, the Commission will, building on its recent Opinion on Croatia, recommend opening it for negotiations provided Croatia is sufficiently prepared.
- Croatia’s correct transposition and implementation of the acquis including effective and efficient application through appropriate administrative and judicial structures will determine the pace of negotiations.
- The Commission will propose to the Council benchmarks for each chapter’s provisional closure ahead of the opening of negotiations under that chapter. These benchmarks could refer to legislative alignment or to a satisfactory track record in implementation. This approach has proved to be successful notably in the competition chapter.
- Progress in the negotiations will be dependent on Croatia’s fulfilment of its commitments under the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, in particular those that mirror requirements under the acquis for example in the field of competition. Any such commitment needs to be fully met before a chapter can be provisionally closed.
- The Commission will carefully monitor Croatia’s progress towards accession making use of all available instruments.
Conclusions and recommendations
In the light of the above, the Commission’s conclusions and recommendations are the following:
(1) This year’s Regular Reports show that Bulgaria and Romania have made further progress over the last year in implementing the accession criteria.
(2) Bulgaria and Romania fulfil the political criteria. Bearing in mind the progress achieved by these countries, the track record in implementing their commitments, and taking into account their preparatory work in progress, the Commission expects these countries to fulfil the economic and acquis criteria and to be ready for membership by January 2007.
The Commission will make every effort in order to meet the European Council’s objective to bring the negotiations with Bulgaria and Romania to a successful conclusion in 2004, on the basis of own merits, with a view to signing the Accession Treaty as early as possible in 2005.
(3) The Regular Reports point to a number of areas where further improvements need to be made in the context of the political and economic criteria and in relationship to the adoption, implementation and enforcement of the acquis. These should be vigorously pursued in order to remedy before accession the shortcomings identified. In order to analyse progress and to facilitate successful membership of the European Union, the Commission will conduct an enhanced monitoring and regularly report to the Council. The Commission will issue as from November 2005 yearly comprehensive monitoring reports for the Council and the Parliament. The Commission considers that a specific safeguard needs to be introduced in the Accession Treaty which would allow the Commission to recommend to the Council to postpone the date of accession of either Bulgaria or Romania by one year to January 2008 if there is clear evidence that there is a serious risk that Bulgaria or Romania will be manifestly unprepared to meet the requirements of membership by 1 January 2007 in a number of important areas.
(4) The Commission recommends extending to Croatia the reinforced pre-accession strategy for candidate countries decided by the European Council in Luxembourg in December 1997, as outlined above.
(5) The Commission recalls that the European Council has decided to begin negotiations with Croatia early in 2005 and suggests that the negotiating framework for Croatia, building on the principles outlined in this paper, is finalised to that end.