Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor said in an interview with Croatian Television on Friday night that her talks with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele earlier in the day were encouraging and put wind in her sails.
Asked if perhaps Croatia was waiting too long to be admitted to the EU, Kosor said that the membership talks were taking long because Croatia had been given more than 120 benchmarks for the opening and closing of some policy areas, and that there had been a lot of demanding work which had been done.
She went on to say that she still believed that the entry talks could be completed by the set deadline (June), which she said Croatia did not impose on itself, but was mentioned by the Hungarian EU Presidency, Prime Minister Viktor Orban, other senior officials of the European Commission, as well as many of her colleagues in EU countries.
She said that some work was left to be done in the policy area No. 23, Judiciary and Fundamental Rights, and that she expected at least two, possibly three policy areas to be closed in April. After that, the policy area concerning shipbuilding remains to be closed, as does the policy area No. 23, where we are expected to make a few more steps, she added.
Asked if parliamentary elections would be called if the EU entry talks were not completed by the end of June, Kosor said that if the talks were not wrapped up by the end of June, they would definitely be completed by the end of this year.
"We can complete the talks this year and then sign an accession treaty, and then organise a referendum," she said, adding that she was surprised by requests from some opposition parties, notably the Social Democrats, that elections be held right away or in June.
She said that in case the elections were held right away, an interim government would not be able to complete the EU talks, because such a government would not have the power to make decisions regarding finances.
Asked if the negotiations would be continued or parliamentary elections held if the June deadline was missed, Kosor said that one should focus on completing the negotiations.
She added that elections would be held by the end of the year, recalling that under the constitution, elections should be held by 11 March 2012.
"The elections will be organised by the end of the year and at the end of June we will announce their date," the PM said, adding that she believed that the EU membership talks would be wrapped up before the elections.
