Sixty-two MEPs voted for the draft resolution, two were against, and three abstained.

The draft will be forwarded to the EP, which will discuss and vote on it at a plenary session next month.

"Negotiations with Croatia can be completed in the first half of 2011 provided that the necessary reforms continue to be pursued resolutely," notably by strengthening public administration and the judiciary, continuing the fight against corruption, ensuring a sustainable refugee return, fully cooperating with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), and by continuing the privatisation and adoption of restructuring plans for ailing shipyards, the draft resolution says.

MEPs had submitted 93 amendments to a report by rapporteur Hannes Swoboda, who managed to agree several compromise amendments, which the Foreign Affairs Committee supported today.

Before the vote, it was agreed to include in the draft resolution a call on the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) to cooperate with the Croatian Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK) in looking into allegations of possible corruption among European officials bribed with money illegally made in Croatia.

"The Committee asks OLAF to co-operate closely with the Croatian authorities to shed light on potential consequences of generating sequent corruption in the EU institutions," says the draft.

The request to involve OLAF was made by three MEPs from the Socialist group - Goran Farm of Sweden, Richard Howitt of Great Britain and Veronique De Keyser of Belgium - who had moved an amendment, thoroughly rephrased in the adopted draft, voicing serious concern over a deposition which Mladen Barisic, a former customs chief and treasurer of the ruling HDZ party, gave to USKOK, notably regarding the use of money gained illegally to pay lobbyists in Brussels, and calling on OLAF to closely cooperate with the Croatian authorities so that the issue can be cleared up.

The fact that this call has been included in the draft resolution does not mean that OLAF will be involved in investigations, as EP resolutions are not legally binding.

Contrary to the original text, the adopted draft resolution contains a somewhat toned down assessment of corruption in Croatia. Instead of stating that it remains widespread and covers nearly all segments of society, the adopted draft says that corruption seems to be widespread and that it seems to cover various segments of society, the economy and political institutions.

The compromise amendment applauds the Croatian government's efforts in the fight against all types of corruption, takes note of high profile anti-corruption cases which include a former prime minister, two former ministers, senior state officials and numerous state-owned companies' CEOs, calls for transparent and fair trials, and reminds the authorities of the importance of protecting corruption investigations from political interference.

One of the compromise amendments points to insufficient progress regarding the infrastructure and equipment of courts, mainly owing to lack of funds.

The draft resolution commends Croatia's progress in meeting chapter closing benchmarks and calls on the Commission to use all its capacities to support Croatia's efforts to meet the benchmarks.

In the part referring to cooperation with the ICTY, the Council of the European Union is called on to take into account an ICTY trial chamber's decision stating that it cannot be established with certainty that the wartime documents sought by the Prosecutor's Office still exist. Croatia is called on to step up its investigation into the missing documents and clear up the inconsistencies which Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz pointed to in a report to the UN Security Council.

The draft resolution says that freedom of expression, including media freedom and pluralism, is generally respected. The Croatian authorities are called on to take further steps to ensure the independence and professionalism of the media and to continue showing determination in order to make sure that the media sector operates without political interference and to ensure the independence of regulatory bodies.

The authorities are also called on to investigate cases of intimidation and political pressure on journalists and cases of commercial influence on the media, as well as to step up investigations into threats against journalists who write about corruption and organised crime.

The draft resolution applauds the conviction for the murder of journalist Ivo Pukanic and stresses that the national broadcaster HRT continues to have difficulties in electing a new director.