Croatia could complete its EU membership talks with the greatest possible effort by the middle of next year and join the EU in late 2012 or early 2013, Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger said in an interview with the Austrian business newspaper Wirtschaftsblatt on Tuesday.
Spindelegger said he believed it was realistic that Croatia would complete its EU entry talks during Hungary's EU presidency in the first half of 2011.
I believe that with maximum effort on the part of the Croatian government, the accession talks can be completed by the middle of next year. The European Parliament is then expected to make a move. The ratification procedure can start in 2012 at the latest and in the best-case scenario, Croatia could become a member of the EU in late 2012 or in early 2013, Spindelegger said.
The Austrian minister said that a few more decisive issues remained in the accession talks.
The reform of the judiciary is an important issue and big steps are yet to be made in that regard. The issue of shipyard privatisation has not been solved entirely either. It is necessary to continue the fight against organised crime in the form of corruption. Those are big obstacles in the accession process, Spindelegger said.
