Accession schedule agreed for Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania

Bulgaria and Romania are on track to sign their accession treaties
in April or May 2005, while Croatia may open accession negotiations
in March, according to an agreement reached by EU foreign ministers
on 13 December.

For both Bucharest and Sofia, the EU accession process will
contain special “safeguard clauses” designed to delay entry if they
are considered unprepared to assume full membership as scheduled in
January 2007. Romania must also speed up reforms in the fields of
justice and competition.

The launch of negotiations with Croatia is conditional on the
country’s “full co-operation” with the UN war crimes court at The
Hague. However, the foreign ministers’ draft statement, which is to
be submitted to the upcoming EU summit for approval,
reportedly omits the details of how Croatia’s co-operation
would be confirmed. 

While numerous member states, including Britain, expect more
marked co-operation from Zagreb in securing the arrest of war
criminal Ante Gotovina, Austria, Germany and Hungary were opposed
to linking the latter issue to the start of the accession
negotiations. According to Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot, the
choice of the month of March for the start of the talks was based
on “technical considerations”.

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Foreign ministers argue over Turkey

Three days before the EU summit is to decide on Turkey's future accession to the EU, foreign ministers were arguing over the details of the final wording of the terms.