At the conference, the Republic of Croatia temporarily closed another two chapters in the EU accession negotiations – Chapter 11: Agriculture and Rural Development, and Chapter 22: Regional Policy and Coordination of Structural Instruments, which makes for 30 temporarily closed of the 35 chapters overall
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| "Source: The Council of the European Union" |
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Gordan Jandroković headed 19 April 2011 in Brussels the Croatian delegation at the Intergovernmental Conference on Croatia’s Accession to the European Union.
At the conference, the Republic of Croatia temporarily closed another two chapters in the EU accession negotiations – Chapter 11: Agriculture and Rural Development, and Chapter 22: Regional Policy and Coordination of Structural Instruments, which makes for 30 temporarily closed of the 35 chapters overall.
Minister Jandroković thanked the Hungarian EU Presidency and Foreign Minister János Martonyi for organizing the conference, and expressed satisfaction with today’s closing of two negotiation chapters, which gives additional impetus to completing the accession negotiations that have now entered their final phase. He also thanked the European Commission and the EU member countries for their expert assistance and support along Croatia’s road of Euro-integration.
He said that Chapter 11 was important not only because of the overall Common Agricultural Policy of the EU, but because of the social and economic significance of the agricultural sector and its development in Croatia as well. Regarding the closure of Chapter 22, Minister Jandroković pointed out that that the EU membership would offer Croatia vast opportunities in terms of participating in the Cohesion Policy. He expressed conviction that the means from the Structural and Cohesion Funds would contribute to the wellbeing of the Croatian citizens and the regions.
Minister Jandroković emphasized that in the coming period Croatia would do all it took to close the remaining chapters, with the bulk of the efforts being invested in closing Chapter 8: Competition Policy and Chapter 23: Judiciary and Fundamental Rights. In that regard, he confirmed Croatia’s readiness to continue with the restructuring of the shipbuilding sector, conducting the reforms in judiciary and public administration, ensuring the highest standards of the fundamental and minority rights protection, combating corruption, and a full cooperation with the ICTY.
He reiterated that the considerable progress in satisfying the criteria for closing Chapter 23 had also been pointed out in the recent European Commission’s interim report, while the European Commission’s President Jose Manuel Barroso commended the achievements and send messages of encouragement during his recent visit to Zagreb as well.
In that sense, Minister Jandroković said that the Croatian government remained determined to close the negotiations by end-June this year and continued to work diligently towards that end.
Hungarian Foreign Minister János Martonyi stated at the ensuing press conference that closing the negotiations in June was an ambitious, but attainable goal, and that although no guarantees could be given, everyone is willing to do all it took to make that happen.
Enlargement Commissioner Štefan Füle said that the Commission did not intend to suggest that a verification and monitoring mechanism be implemented, such as the one seen in Bulgaria and Romania. Instead, the Commission will continue with the monitoring after the Accession Treaty is signed, which will last until the end of the ratification process, that is, until the accession proper.
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