Croatia: “We share the ambition of the Hungarian Presidency!”

The Hungarian Presidency hopes that the necessary benchmarks will be met, and talks with Croatia can be closed this semester. Do you find this goal realistic?

We share the ambition of the Hungarian Presidency! We believe it is possible to technically and politically close the accession negotiations during the time which is ahead of us. We have 28 chapters provisionally closed, and 7 left to close. We already have two meetings with the intergovernmental partners scheduled for April and June. From our side, we should do our maximum to meet all the benchmarks and finish the accession talks after a five and half year long negotiation process.

It is good that you mention the length of the accession process. Public opinion often reacts negatively if accession talks take a long time. Do you think Croatian people will give a positive answer in the referendum about EU-membership?

I believe the majority of the Croatians are in favour of the EU accession. After the signature of the accession treaty, which we hopefully pass during the polish presidency, within 30 days we will organise the referendum. The majority required is a simple majority, this means 50 percent plus one.

In 2010 we have already been conducting an important information campaign on European Union issues, and in the next couple of months we will start another information campaign for explaining the benefits of European integration to our citizens. I hope that at least 65 percent of the Croatians will be in favour of membership. But it is true that the length of the process is certainly a cause for frustration in a minority of Croatians.

Romania has recently mentioned the possibility, that he would insist the cooperation and verification mechanism (CVM) to be applied in the case of Croatia as well. Do you think this could mean a setback to the accession negotiations?

In the meantime there have been clarifications from the highest Romanian officials. We believe that the cooperation and verification mechanism in this point of our accession negotiations is not an option that the European Union might be looking for.

We feel that the new methodology of the accession negotiations, with the opening and the closing of each chapter and the following of the track records, have enabled Croatia to fulfil the criteria before the membership. So it is not necessary to have a post membership monitoring mechanism. At this stage we are confident to conclude the negotiations without any CVM mechanism.

Judiciary and fundamental rights is the most difficult chapter in the negotiations. How does Croatia get along with benchmarks on this field?

This new chapter in the accession negotiations, which did not exist in the fifth enlargement wave, when Hungary joined the European Union, is indeed a summary of all the political benchmarks. In terms of the fulfilment of the benchmarks there are nine groups, including the cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

We have made considerable progress. Every month, Croatian government adopts a special report on the progress of the benchmarks of chapter 23, notably the fight against corruption, which is top priority of the Croatian government, as well as the general reform of judiciary. We have adopted a strategy for the reform of the judiciary of Croatia. Impartiality, independence and efficiency of the judicial system are top priority for our Ministry of Justice.

We feel that the interim report of the European Commission, will be published on the 11 March, should give a good and objective outlook of our track record.

Our feeling is that the chapter of Judiciary and Fundamental Rights will be the last on the agenda, or together with the chapter of Financial and Budgetary Provisions, in June. One year after opening a chapter should be sufficient for the assessment on the EU side and basing a Commission report to close the political and essential part of the accession negotiations.