Croatia expects to close EU talks in 2007

Croatia aims to conclude accession talks in 2007, and
expects talks to head directly towards EU membership. In
February, the Commission will present the framework for the talks,
which are scheduled to start on 17 March.

Croatia aims to bring its EU accession talks to a conclusion by
2007, and to join the Union as a full member in 2009. To this
end, Prime Minister Ivo Sanader has pledged that the
country will “do all in its power” to co-operate with the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, which
has charged several Croatian generals with war crimes. 

However, during his talks in Brussels on 17 January, Sanader
also said that he expects Zagreb’s negotiations to
be directly conducive to accession, ie not patterned on
the Turkish model, where accession talks have been declared to be
“open-ended”. He also reiterated that Croatia aims to join the EU
during the 2007-2013 budgetary period, and not after 2014, as has
been determined for Turkey.

Meanwhile, Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn confirmed on 2
February that the Commission will present a framework for its
negotiations with Croatia. Rehn said that the framework will
include more accurate benchmarks for opening and closing the
negotiation chapters than those featured during the previous
enlargement negotiations. 

The accession talks with Croatia will be conducted in the
framework of 36 (not 31) chapters as the Commission has decided to
split some of the existing policy areas, Rehn said.

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