The European Union has not yet decided whether accession negotiations with Croatia will be concluded in June, and that decision cannot be expected before all the requirements have been met, primarily those in the policy chapter Judiciary and Fundamental Rights, the head of the Croatian national committee overseeing EU accession negotiations, Vesna Pusic, said on Wednesday, stressing that she thought that Zagreb's goal of completing entry talks in June was attainable.
Earlier this week Pusic and a Croatian Parliament delegation visited Berlin at the invitation of the German government to inform the German partners about what Croatia was doing to complete the negotiations in June.
The Croatian delegation included the chairman of the European Integration Committee, Neven Mimica, the chairman of the Interparliamentary Cooperation Committee, Milorad Pupovac, and the head of the Croatian Parliament Delegation to the Croatia-EU Joint Parliamentary Committee, Marija Pejcinovic-Buric.
"In my opinion, the talks in Berlin indicate that it has not been decided yet whether EU countries and institutions will decide to conclude negotiations with us in June," Pusic said at a press conference in Zagreb.
"We, of course, cannot expect a positive decision unless the closing benchmarks have been met, primarily those for the chapter Judiciary and Fundamental Rights. Some issues in the chapter Competition Policy were also mentioned, but the chapter Judiciary and Fundamental Rights is crucial," she said.
Pusic said that the required benchmarks could be fulfilled by June, but added that the closing of the remaining chapters also required a political decision by the EU member states, which in her opinion was not forthcoming yet.
When asked by the press if it was possible that the EU would introduce a monitoring mechanism for the area of judiciary and fundamental rights in Croatia, Pusic said that that was not being discussed by European institutions at the moment.
Some Croatian media said on Wednesday that Croatia could wrap up the EU membership negotiations in June provided that a monitoring mechanism was introduced for judiciary and fundamental rights. In that way the European Commission would be able to continue monitoring the implementation of the benchmarks and delay the signing of the accession treaty in case the reform process came to a standstill.
Croatia has yet to close negotiations in seven policy chapters, including Chapter 23 (Judiciary and Fundamental Rights) and Chapter 8 (Competition Policy).
