On Thursday 17 November, the European Commission announced that Croatia was being taken to the European Court of Justice as the country has still not ratified the European Community protocol of accession or submitted it to the international Eurocontrol convention, despite this being signed by the EU in 2002.
As the guardian of the Treaties, the Commission believes that Croatia is failing to meet its obligations under the terms of the Treaty on European Union, which establishes the principle of loyal cooperation between the EU and member states (Article 4, §3).
The Commission points out that Eurocontrol plays a major role in the EU, particularly with regard to implementation of the Single European Sky – one of the priorities in the aviation strategy for Europe (see EUROPE 11448).
Despite talks being initiated by the Commission in March 2014, Croatia has still not taken the corrective measures requested with a view to ratifying the protocol, pushing the Commission to take this case to the European Court of Justice. (PH)