The European Union has already prepared a considerable part of the calendar for the final stage of Croatia's EU accession negotiations, according to which a decision on the conclusion of Croatia's entry talks may be expected in June, with a possibility of the technical aspect of the negotiations being finished in early July, and all of that depends on the European Commission's assessment of the candidate's readiness to join the 27-member bloc, a diplomatic source in Brussels has told press.
According to the source, all member-states have agreed that everything now depends on a final assessment of the Union's executive arm and if the Commission gives a positive signal in the drafts of negotiating positions, the members will be willing to endorse the conclusion of Croatia's EU entry talks.
At the last meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, the Commission announced its intention to submit the draft negotiating positions as soon as possible to the Council of the EU.
The Commission thus could forward those drafts on the remaining opened policy areas to the EU members in mid-June.
In the event of the Commission's positive assessment, the European Council, which consists of the heads of state or government of the Union's members could make a political decision, at its gathering on 23-24 June, on the completion of Croatia's accession negotiations and set a date for Zagreb's entry into the EU. The most likely date seems to be July 2013.
Hungary's presidency of the EU, which expires on 30 June, has envisaged an intergovernmental accession conference for 21 June. It is hardly to expect to get all the five remaining opened policy areas closed on that conference as, to that end, the Council of the EU should harmonise and accept joint negotiating positions in one week's time.
The "Fisheries" policy area and perhaps "Competition Policy" are to be closed on that occasion.
If not all negotiating areas are closed at that conference, another intergovernmental conference could be expected in the period from 24 June, upon the European Council's meeting, until the end of the Hungarian EU chairmanship on 30 June or at the very beginning of Poland's EU presidency in July, that is on 7 July.
A political decision to be made by the European Council is of the utter importance for the matter, as the next EU summit would not be before October.
To date, Croatia has opened all the policy chapters and provisionally closed 30. The remaining five areas are "Judiciary and Fundamental Rights", "Competition Policy", "Fisheries", "Finance and Budgetary Provisions" and "Other Issues".
The Commission has already forwarded a draft of the joint negotiating position on "Fisheries", in which it stated that Croatia had met all benchmarks for the closing of that policy area.
