The European Commission needs more time to assess if Croatia is ready to wrap up its EU entry talks and expects some explanations and materials from Zagreb regarding the fulfilment of the benchmarks for the closing of negotiating chapters, the spokeswoman for the Enlargement Commissioner, Natasha Butler, said on Thursday.
We are in the middle of the process of studying a certain number of documents which were received from the Croatian government last week concerning the policy areas on the Judiciary and Fundamental Rights and the Competition Policy. We need a little more time to study the reports. Besides, there are some elements and material that require additional explanations and we expect to get them from the Croatian government soon, Butler said when asked by reporters how Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele had assessed Croatia's progress at a working breakfast with EU ambassadors on Thursday morning.
Brussels also expects a report by the mission of experts of the European Commission and member countries, which recently visited Croatia.
We make assessments not only based on reports by the Croatian government, but also based on our own information and other sources, such as civil society, the Delegation of the European Union, Butler said adding that the report was expected next week.
According to her, the assessment of Croatia's readiness to close the negotiations will not be made public next week either.
Asked about the reactions of member countries' ambassadors to Fuele's presentation, Butler said it was not the practice in the European Union to reveal details of confidential talks by the Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER) and other EU bodies.
The commissioner summarized the situation with Croatia's EU entry talks to the ambassadors so that foreign ministers, who meet on Monday, could be informed about it and discuss it during a working dinner.
Butler declined to either confirm or deny that the EU foreign ministers would talk about a date of Croatia's EU admission on Monday.
According to diplomatic sources, the most likely date for Croatia's admission is mid 2013.
European Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said on Wednesday she was impressed with the progress Croatia had made in building its judicial system, namely on Chapter Judiciary and Fundamental Rights on which the closure of the negotiations depends.
At its regular weekly briefing on Wednesday, the European Commission talked about the state of Croatia's EU entry talks and Reding said she expected the Commission to adopt its assessment of Croatia's readiness to close the negotiations soon.
Diplomatic sources stress that Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele agreed with Reding's assessment about Croatia's readiness.
The European Union does not plan to introduce any control mechanism once Croatia joins the European Union, like the one introduced for Bulgaria and Romania, but chances are great for the present way of monitoring the implementation of the obligations from the provisionally closed chapters to continue even after Croatia closes its EU membership talks, until the end of the ratification process in the member states, or until Zagreb joins the bloc.
