During an informal meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Sopot, Poland, the Austrian minister of foreign affairs, Michael Spindelegger, pushed for the signing of the Croatia-EU accession treaty before the end of November, the Slovenian news agency STA said.
I think that the best solution would be to sign the treaty before the end of November, the STA quoted Spindelegger as saying, adding that in this way, the minister supported the document's signing before Croatia's parliamentary elections, set for 4 December.
The soon we sign the treaty the soon we can move forward, he said on the fringes of the informal meeting of the European bloc's foreign ministers.
On Thursday, the European Parliament's rapporteur for Croatia, Hannes Swoboda, said the accession treaty with Croatia should be signed on December 9, while the Polish EU Presidency could not confirm that date. Mariusz Daca, counsellor at Poland's Permanent Representation to the European Union who chairs the Council of the EU working group for drafting the accession treaty with Croatia, said that efforts were being made to ensure that the treaty was signed in December, but he could not confirm the date.
