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Croatia will be ready to join the EU in 2009 and its membership is not going to be delayed by the EU's current institutional "crisis", Croatian President Stjepan Mesic has said.

"I understand European countries, including France, which intend to solve the EU's institutional problems before proceeding to any new accessions … [But] we will speed up the rhythm of our reforms and be ready in 2009 to join the EU as its 28th member," Mr Mesic told French daily Le Figaro in an interview published on Tuesday (15 July).

With the two new policy areas - free movement of workers and social policy and employment - 20 of the 35 "chapters" have been opened with Croatia since the start of negotiations in October 2005. 

Speaking after the conference, Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Jandrokovic and Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel expressed hope that all chapters could be closed by the end of the year. "It's possible. I wish this possibility would become reality," said Rupel, whose country holds the EU Presidency until 30 June. 

Speaking at a press conference with Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn on Tuesday (7 April), Jandrović said 2008 was a "crucial year in terms of the efforts needed to meet the criteria for membership". He hoped to complete two more benchmark chapters by the end of April and the rest by the end of the Slovenian EU Presidency. 

Revealing that negotiations with Croatia have been "advancing well", Rehn expressed his confidence that the country would join the EU in 2010 provided that it met all the benchmarks by June 2008. 

"In this autumn's enlargement package, the Commission will present an indicative timetable for the technical conclusion of the negotiations in 2009, provided a number of conditions are met by Croatia," said the Commission President. He said these included:

• Complying with all legal obligations under the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA), including cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY);


• "urgently" improving the management of EU financial assistance under the PHARE and IPA programmes, and;


• suspending all aspects of Croatia's Ecological and Fisheries Protection Zone, which had blocked Slovenian and Italian vessels from fishing in Croatian waters.

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Regarding Bosnia, the Commission hopes that the Stabilisation and Association Agreement will be signed by EU ministers this April (EurActiv 29/02/08). Rehn said the main condition, cooperation with the International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), had reached "a generally satisfactory level". 

Rehn also reiterated the clear membership perspective for Kosovo and Serbia, saying that the latter plays a "key role" in the region. The Commissioner, however, urged Serbia to reaffirm its European commitment, responding to moves by leading Serbian politicians to reject deeper EU relations unless the bloc supports Serbia's claim to Kosovo. 

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Croatia’s two leading parties have moved toward the political center. Bosnia could again drive a wedge between them.

Croatia’s two largest parties are running the country’s closest ever election race. Polls put both the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and the main opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP) at 30 percent each ahead of parliamentary elections on 25 November, with a host of smaller parties running far behind. This makes commentators quite unwilling to predict the outcome.



More significantly, many professional observers seems to think the outcome doesn’t matter terribly much this time as both parties advocate very similar policies.