The European Commission will adopt a decision on Wednesday on a new contract to privatise the Brodosplit shipyard, which is one of the ten tasks Croatia was set, while the others have already been met or are being finalised, a representative of the Directorate General for Enlargement in the European Commission, Dirk Lange, told the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs in Brussels on Monday.
Lange took part in a discussion at the Committee, advising it of developments ahead of a monitoring report that the Commission is to release on March 21. According to Lange, Croatia can expect a positive report.
Croatia has presented a new privatisation plan for Brodosplit and the Commission is to adopt its decision on Wednesday and we expect a positive decision, which means that the privatisation contract could be signed by the end of the month, said Lange.
He advised MEP's that Croatia had set up a conflict of interest commission, stepped up the construction of border crossing near Neum which will be completed by March 31, as well as accelerating the translation of European acquis which should be completed by July 1.
The translating has been stepped up and if it continues at this rate, it will be completed by the time of entry to the EU, however it will not be finished by the time the Commission releases its report, he said.
The European Commission assessed in its monitoring report last October that Croatia still had ten tasks that it must carry out before accession to the EU scheduled for 1 July 2013.
The ten tasks include: signing a privatisation contract for Brodosplit and taking the necessary decisions to find a viable solution for the shipyards 3. Maj and Brodotrogir in order to complete the restructuring of the Croatian shipbuilding industry; implementing short-term measures elaborated in September 2012 for increasing the efficiency of the judiciary and reducing the court backlog; adopting the new enforcement legislation in order to ensure the execution of court decisions and reduce the backlog of enforcement cases; establishing the Conflict of Interest Commission so that it starts its regular working activities; adopting the new law on access to information in order to strengthen the legal and administrative framework in the area of access to information; completing the adoption of related by-laws to ensure the implementation of the police law; completing the construction of border crossing points at the Neum corridor; achieving the established recruitment target for border police for 2012; finalising and adopting the migration strategy clearly defining measures for the integration of the most vulnerable groups of migrants; and increasing the capacity to translate and review the acquis such that this task can be completed in time for accession to the EU.
