Brussels, 26/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 26 January, the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee (AFET) approved the report by Hannes Swoboda (S&D, Austria). This report is clearly in favour of concluding accession negotiations with Croatia by the end of the Hungarian Presidency of the EU in June. Swoboda explained after the committee vote that “we are determined to help in bringing Croatia's negotiation process to a successful end during the first half of this year. In this case, Croatia's membership can be a reality between 1 January 2013 at the earliest or 1 January 2014 at the latest”. The Croatian government is urged to continue reforms to enhance the administrative capacity of its organisations for fighting corruption and organised crime. So far, Croatia has closed 28 of the 35 negotiating chapters. A few particularly difficult chapters still need to be negotiated, particularly “competition policy” (where the restructuring of the shipyards is posing a problem) and “justice and fundamental rights”, where no fewer than 22 closing benchmarks need to be respected before talks can be closed. (H.B./transl.fl)