Croatia is expected to complete accession negotiations with the European Union by June 30, the accession treaty could be signed in the autumn or by the end of the year, after which its ratification will begin, Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger said in Vienna on Wednesday, according to APA news agency.
Croatia will be an EU member in mid-2013, he told the parliamentary European affairs committee ahead of a European Council meeting on Thursday and Friday at which the EU's heads of state or government are expected to adopt a decision on the completion of Croatia's accession negotiations by the end of the month and on the signing of the accession treaty by the end of the year.
Freedom Party of Austria president Heinz-Christian Strache asked that the issue of the Krsko nuclear power plant be included in Croatia's EU entry talks. He had already made this request, claiming that the Austrian government should announce a veto on Croatia's accession if Croatia, which co-owns the plant with Slovenia, insisted on keeping it in operation.
Spindelegger told him today it was true that Croatia owned half the plant, but that it was on Slovenian territory and that it would be included in tests intended to see how EU nuclear plants withstood natural and man-made disasters.
He added Krsko was not a Soviet-type nuclear plant like Slovakia's Bohunice. Slovakia, which joined the EU in 2004, had to agree to closing one reactor during its EU entry talks.
