The completion of Croatia's EU entry talks by the end of June is among the priorities of Hungary's EU presidency and Budapest is committed to that objective, said Ambassador Ivan, whose country took over the six-month rotating EU presidency on 1 January.

Of course, Croatia has to meet all the requirements, close all the negotiating chapters and meet all the benchmarks, he added.

Ambassador Vandoren stressed that Croatia was most definitely on the right track.

Croatia has most definitely entered the final stage of its EU membership talks. There are several other great challenges ahead of us, notably with regard to Chapter 23 which deals with judiciary reform, fight against corruption and organised crime, and respect for human rights, and Chapter 8 which focuses on competition policy in which restructuring of the Croatian shipbuilding industry remains the greatest challenge, Vandoren said.

We will have a more clear picture in March and see if it is possible to wrap up Croatia's negotiations by the end of June, given that the European Commission is expected to present its progress report on Croatia to the EU member states on 11 March, Vandoren said, adding that the report would focus on Croatia's progress in the judiciary.

I am confident Croatia will do everything that is being asked of it to be able to close its EU entry talks in the near future. I strongly believe that the accession process will help Croatia to carry out many reforms that are necessary for the further modernisation of Croatian institutions and the economy, Vandoren said.

Answering a reporter's question, Vandoren said that the issue of introducing a special monitoring mechanism for Croatia, similar to the one introduced for Romania and Bulgaria following their EU entry, was not on the agenda.

Vandoren also said that the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty on 1 December 2009 meant that the European Union had fulfilled its promise to Zagreb and prepared its institutions for Croatia's accession as the 28th member.

I assure you that upon entering the EU Croatia will be appropriately represented in EU institutions and that Croatian will be the 24th official language of the European Union, Vandoren said.

Presenting the priorities of Hungary's EU presidency, Ivan said the objective was to build a strong European Union which will be close to its citizens. He added that other objectives included economic growth, job creation, a strong common policy and bringing European institutions closer to its citizens.