We believe that the process of accession negotiations with Croatia has been solid and credible and that Croatia has reached the point of no return, the process is irreversible, the source said on Monday explaining the reasons why the Commission does not want to impose post-monitoring on Croatia, as was the case with the newcomers, Bulgaria and Romania.

The Commission does not say that the situation in Croatia is absolutely perfect when it comes to the struggle against corruption and organised crime, the country needs to continue with that campaign, however, we believe that Croatia has achieved very much and that there results exist. We encourage Croatia to continue on the same track and to show that there is no relaxation once Croatia joins the EU, the source said.

European Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele is expected to present the Commission's final monitoring report on Croatia's preparedness on Tuesday at a special session of the Croatian government in Zagreb, and according to sources from the Commission, the report's conclusion is that Croatia is fully prepared for admission to the European Union, set for 1 July.

According to the recent comments by the sources from the Commission on the 15-page final report, which focuses on Croatia's performance in the three most difficult chapters of the acquis communautaire, Croatia is entering the Union with "a clean bill of health".

The final report, which the Commission will release on Croatia in the run-up to its entry to the EU, deals with 10 areas within the three most difficult chapters of EU legislation - Competition Policy, Judiciary and Fundamental Rights, and Justice, Freedom and Security.

Croatia is the first EU acceding country that has been subjected to a pre-accession monitoring mechanism, which checks a country's compliance with its commitments in the period from the signing of the accession treaty to accession.

In that way the EU wants to make sure that a future member is completely ready for membership, so that there will be no need for any post-accession monitoring as was the case of Bulgaria and Romania. The mechanism of putting the aspirant under scrutiny in the run-up to its admission has been introduced to avoid a repetition of previous cases when acceding countries suspended all reforms after signing the accession treaty. Pre-accession monitoring therefore is also a form of pressure that is maintained until accession day.

The Commission has released two of three planned monitoring reports on Croatia since the signing of its accession treaty on December 9, 2011.

The first report was made public on April 24, 2012, covering the three most important chapters.

The second, comprehensive report was released on October 10, 2012, covering all chapters, while the third and final report, which is due on 26 March, will focus only on the three most important chapters.