Brussels, 18/04/2008 (Agence Europe) - Croatia's accession talks with the EU will resume in Brussels on Monday 21 April 2008 at deputy level, when two new chapters will be launched. Turkey will have to wait until the ministerial accession conference of 17 June 2008 for the next round in its accession talks. Initially forecast for 21 April 2008, the meeting with the Turkish negotiator has been cancelled due to lack of sufficient progress in the technical preparation of the dossiers.
Croatia. Talks will open on Monday on the energy and transport chapters, meaning that 18 of the total 35 chapters will have been opened, two of which (science and research, and education and culture) have already been provisionally concluded. On energy, Croatia accepts the EU rules currently in force but calls for temporary exemptions when its joins the EU. It is calling for: a transitional period until 31 July 2012 for the application of EU Directive 2006/67/EEC whereby member states are required to keep certain stockpiles of crude oil; - a transition period until 31 December 2018 for the application of Regulation 1228/2003 on network access criteria for cross-border electricity sales. The EU says this request cannot be agreed to and will therefore be up for discussion. On transport, Croatia accepts the EU legislation in force but calls for the following derogations: - a transitional period until 31 December 2012 for various measures of Directive 91/440/EEC on the development of EU railways. In order to evaluate this request, the EU is requesting further information from Croatia; - a transition period until 31 December 2016 for Council Regulation 3577/92 on shipping cabotage for freight. The EU believes this request cannot be agreed to because it would disturb the smooth functioning of the single market in maritime freight transport; - a transitional period until 31 December 2014 for Regulation 3577/92 on freight cabotage by cruise ships. For the same reason, the EU believes this request cannot be agreed to. Croatia is not the only country calling for derogations. The EU would, in fact, like to postpone application of the 3118/93 legislation in order to protect the old member states for a few years from road haulage cabotage by Croatian transport companies. Croatia will react to this request on Monday.
Turkey. It was hoped that the Turkish accession talks could begin on 21 April with new chapters (intellectual property rights and company law) but insufficient progress was made in the preparations for the meeting to take place. It is therefore for 'purely technical reasons' that Monday's meeting has been cancelled, according to the Slovenian Presidency of the EU, sentiments echoed by Turkey. The accession talks are a very complex process that takes a lot of time and involves a lot of players, and it is therefore quite run of the mill for meetings to be postponed if dossiers are not technically ready, comment Turkish sources, refusing to interpret this as a political signal of any sort. On the contrary, Turkey is convinced that two or three new chapters can be opened on 17 June 2008: intellectual property rights, company law and, possibly, education and culture. (H.B.)