By adopting this decision the government accepts the Draft Accession Treaty and the Draft Final Act. Under the articles of the treaty, the treaty is to go into force on 1 July 2013 provided that it is ratified by that time by all EU member-countries and Croatia.

The government's decision proposes that the Accession Treaty and the Final Act be signed by Prime Minister Kosor and President Josipovic.

Kosor expressed satisfaction that the decision was being adopted in a week when Croatia was celebrating Independence Day and the 20th anniversary of its independence.

The government's decision creates the basic precondition for the accomplishment of the strategic national and foreign political goal of EU accession, she said.

She went on to say that today's decision was part of the foundations of the work of all Croatian governments and Croatia's first president, Franjo Tudjman.

We have done a huge job since 8 October 1991 and I think that it should fill all former and current members of government and citizens with pride and satisfaction, Kosor said.

She thanked all previous governments and negotiators for their work and citizens for patience.

The PM recalled that Croatia gained EU candidate status on 18 June 2004 and that its accession talks started on 3 October 2005 in Luxembourg with the first Croatia-EU inter-governmental accession conference.

This was followed by a process of analytical review and assessment of the degree of alignment of the national legislation with the EU acquis communautaire, the so-called screening, and the talks were formally closed at the last intergovernmental accession conference, held on 30 June 2011 in Brussels.

The enforcement of Croatia's accession treaty will enable the country to receive significant funds from the EU budget, and Croatia will be required to make contributions from its budget to the EU budget from the date of accession.