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.

In light of the progress achieved and the European Commission's positive assessment, the European Council calls for the completion of the accession negotiations by the end of June 2011 based on draft joint positions which the Commission recently presented with a view to signing the accession treaty by the end of the year, according to draft conclusions which EU leaders are expected to adopt at the Brussels summit.

The conclusions constitute the political decision on the completion of the negotiations, after which the remaining four negotiation chapters are expected to be closed by the end of the month.

The European Council's draft conclusions do not directly mention an accession date. This is done indirectly, by citing draft joint negotiating positions in which the Commission starts from the assumption that Croatia will join the EU on 1 July 2013 as the 28th member.

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.