Brussels, 17/06/2011 (Agence Europe) - European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has expressed confidence that EU leaders will next week give a green light for Croatia to conclude its membership negotiations this month. But it remained unclear whether the leaders would demand that a mechanism be set up to monitor progress once Zagreb has become the EU's 28th member, probably on 1st July 2013.
“I think we may already expect developments at next week's European Council”, Barroso told reporters after talks on Friday 17 June with visiting Croatian President Ivo Josipovic. An official with the Hungarian presidency of the EU Council was also hopeful of significant progress at the 23-24 June summit. “We are close to a decision because the Commission's recommendations are very clear”, he said, on condition of anonymity. “This can make it possible to conclude the negotiations with Croatia by the end of the Hungarian Presidency”, he said. For the talks to be officially concluded by 30 June, at least one inter-governmental accession conference must be held to close the last four of the 35 chapters that all aspiring nations must complete to join the EU. The outstanding chapters are: budget, justice and fundamental freedoms, competition and miscellaneous.
Barroso said that the Commission, which supervises the EU enlargement process, would continue to advise and support Croatia until it joins but that it had not proposed any specific monitoring for the period after the Balkan state has become a member. The Presidency official, however, suggested that some such system might be necessary. “We have not proposed any specific monitoring”, Barroso said. “Our purpose is to ensure that candidate countries are ready on accession. We believe Croatia is ready.” But the Presidency is examining what monitoring might be done, and while no system like that employed for Bulgaria and Romania will be used, the official said there are some “traditional tools” available for producing a “legally sound and proportionate” mechanism. France is known to want some means of surveillance to be put into place, according to diplomatic sources. For his part, Josipovic said that he did not believe any monitoring would be necessary, but that in any case Zagreb has nothing to fear. “We are not afraid of any checks or controls”, he said.
In the European Parliament, the Greens Party expressed deep concern at the violence which marred last weekend's Gay Pride rally in the Croatian city of Split. Some 10,000 protestors hit the streets, with some chanting “kill the faggots” and throwing paving stones. Austrian Green MEP Ulrike Lunacek said the protests show that “the enforcement of European values - like freedom of assembly and non-discrimination - are not as widespread in Croatian society as would be expected for a candidate country about to gain access to the EU”. (LoC/transl.fl)