Leaders of European Union countries met in Brussels on Thursday evening for a two-day summit at which they will call for the completion of accession negotiations with Croatia by the end of the month and the signing of the accession treaty by the end of the year.
"In the light of the progress made and the Commission's positive assessment, the European Council calls for the conclusion of the accession negotiations with Croatia by the end of June 2011 on the basis of the draft common positions recently presented by the Commission, with a view to the signing of the Accession Treaty before the end of the year," reads a draft conclusion which is to be adopted at the summit.
At the end of the summit, on Friday afternoon, Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor will meet European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, and Hungarian PM Viktor Orban, whose country presides the EU in the first half of the year.
A press conference will be held after the meeting at which the European Council's decision on the completion of Croatia's accession negotiations will be made public.
The accession treaty is signed after the completion of the negotiations, during Poland's EU presidency in the second half of the year, followed by ratification in member states. Thirty days within the signing of the treaty, Croatia is expected to hold a referendum on EU accession. The signing of the treaty requires the European Parliament's previous consent.
