European Commission President Joss Manuel Barroso will close six years of talks between Brussels and Zagreb on Friday with a recommendation to the EU’s existing members to expand the bloc for the first time since 2007, according to the Financial Times.
"Croatia will take a big step towards becoming the European Union’s 28th member state when it wins approval this week from the European Commission for accession, with a target date of July 1 2013," the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
Zagreb now needs to secure the unanimous support of the EU’s 27 governments, some of whom have expressed reservations about enlarging the club as it weathers crises linked to eurozone debts and the bloc’s passport-free travel scheme, the Financial Times said.
A final agreement on accession could be ready in time for a meeting of EU leaders scheduled for June 23 and 24, days before the close of Hungary’s six-month rotating presidency of the EU, during which it has lobbied actively for Croatian accession.
A spokesman for the Hungarian presidency said it was awaiting the Commission’s verdict before starting the process of ratification among EU governments.
"We hope to finish the negotiations by the end of the presidency, and we think it is feasible," the Financial times quoted the spokesman as saying.
A successful outcome will hinge on the position taken by countries that have advocated caution in the EU’s expansion, most notably the Netherlands. Their reluctance largely stems from difficulties with Romania and Bulgaria, the last new entrants to the EU, which are widely seen to have failed to fulfil promises made during their accession negotiations, the Financial Times said.
The Financial Times quoted Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal as saying that lessons from previous enlargements had to be learnt. "A snapshot of the existing situation is not enough. We must ensure that reforms are irreversible and that will require a monitoring device with teeth up until accession. We want a strong insurance policy," Rosenthal was quoted as saying.
But the Commission’s decision to set a date on Croatian accession two years away suggests it is confident that approval from EU governments will be forthcoming – if not on June 23, then within months, the Financial Times said.
It also explained that negotiations to join the EU often take several years as candidate countries have to prove they are capable of integrating the bloc and that their existing laws are compatible with European regulations. Croatia’s bid was held up for months by a dispute over its maritime boundary with Slovenia, an existing EU member that threatened to block its neighbour’s accession bid as long as the issue was unresolved.
