State Secretary and Chief Coordinator for monitoring activities in negotiations with the EU Bianca Matković met with the EU coordinators from the ministries and other national authorities participating in the process of EU accession negotiations

State Secretary Matković informed the attending coordinators about the course of accession negotiations hitherto as well future activities planned, pointing out that the successful course of negotiations which gained momentum in the course of the year was a clear indicator of the progress achieved by the Republic of Croatia in the process of the EU acquis take-over. State Secretary said that the Republic of Croatia might be able to open negotiations on all the remaining chapters until the end of the year, together with closing as many chapters as possible and expressed confidence that the overall process of Croatian accession negotiations would be technically completed in the second half of 2009.

State Secretary Matković expressed gratitude to all EU coordinators and teams in state administrative bodies participating in the process of accession negotiations with the EU for the hitherto achieved progress, and invited the participating institutions to continue devoting the same efforts so that Croatia would fulfil all its obligations within the given deadlines.

At the meeting, the EU coordinators were given instruction on drafting of the 2009 National EU Accession Programme, with drafting timetable associated thereto. Referring to the implementation of the 2008 National Programme, State Secretary Matković underlined that the Programme anticipated 126 acts to be passed, the Government adopted 89 thus far, and 11 more bills would be sent to the Croatian Parliament this week. State Secretary also reminded the EU coordinators who were present at the meeting of their institutions’ obligations as regards the last two quarters of the year.

At the meeting, the new State Secretary for European Integration in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Dr. Davor Božinović was also introduced.