Brussels, 03/10/2007 (Agence Europe) - Croatia has set itself the goal of joining the European Union during 2009, the chief negotiator for membership talks, Vladimir Drobnjak, said on Tuesday 2 October on the sidelines of the 6th joint EU-Croatia parliamentary meeting held in Brussels. The government and all political parties of Croatia consider this is a realistic timeframe, despite “enlargement fatigue” which is beginning to be felt among the 27 member states, the negotiator explained. At this stage, accession talks have already been closed on two of the 35 chapters of acquis communautaire: science/research and education/culture. Ten other chapters are already open: economic and monetary policy, enterprise and industrial policy, customs union, intellectual property rights, free provision of services, corporate law, financial services, media and information society, statistics and financial control. During the next ministerial negotiation session, scheduled for 15 October in Luxembourg (on the fringe of the General Affairs Council), two new chapters should be opened: health and consumer protection and external relations (on this last chapter, Coreper is to give its go-ahead in the next few days). Croatian diplomats express their hope of adding five more chapters to the list of open chapters by the end of the year: free movement of workers, transport, energy, trans-European networks, and budget. According to Zagreb, all negotiations could thus be concluded by the end of 2008, leaving one year in which to sign and ratify the accession treaty.
On Tuesday, during discussion in joint parliamentary committee, MEPs placed emphasis on the fight against corruption and reform of the judiciary - areas in which Croatia is still lagging behind. Gary Titley (PES, UK) noted, for example, that the country is only in 64th position in the 2007 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). The European Commission representative asserted that the Croatian office against organised crime and corruption (USKOK) had become “more active” recently but that there was still “a great deal to do”. Croatia also confirmed that it wanted to be fully involved in reflection on the future of Europe. (hb)