We received additional information that we requested from Croatia and now we are drawing up benchmarks. Our position is that the negotiations on this chapter can now be opened, however, this still needs to be approved at a meeting of commissioners, after which the proposal will be sent to the Council of the European Union, a source who spoke on condition of anonymity said.

Additional information refers to an appraisal of maritime domain which include shipyards for which the Croatian government had published privatisation tenders several days ago.

Now we have a more clear picture about the value of Croatia's maritime domain, namely about the ownership stake of the state in shipyards, the same source said.

Tenders for the privatisation of six Croatian state-owned shipyards were published on Monday in a Croatian daily as well as in the Financial Times and in Lloyd's List, after they were published on the web site of the Croatian Privatisation Fund (HFP) on Saturday.

This is the second round of privatisation of state-owned shipyards. The first one was organised in August 2009, and by the end of September, when the tender expired, only two bids were submitted. The government did not accept them because they did not meet mandatory tender conditions.

In the second privatisation round, the state is selling, under special conditions, at a price of one kuna, its majority stakes in four shipyards - an 83.32 percent stake in the Rijeka-based shipyard 3. Maj, a 95.24 percent stake in Brodotrogir, a 99.54 stake in Brodogradiliste Kraljevica, and a 99.78 percent stake in Brodogradjevna Industrija Split.

The shipyard issue is closely related to the opening of negotiations on Chapter Market Competition because of impermissible state subsidies which Croatia is paying to the shipbuilding sector. In agreement wit the European Commission, the Croatian government has arranged the restructuring of Croatian shipyards through privatisation.

Croatia is also expected to open the negotiations on Chapter Judiciary and Fundamental Rights the opening of which had been blocked by several EU members over ICTY Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz's criticism that Croatia's cooperation with the tribunal was not sufficient.

The EC source said that on that front Croatia had mostly adjusted its legislation to that of the EU, adding that now one needs to wait for the results.

Asked if the EC will make the closing of the said chapter conditional on guilty verdicts in on-going corruption trials, the source said the Commission cannot ask that.