The Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER), which consists of ambassadors from EU member-countries, on Wednesday evening adopted a European Commission report on screening for that chapter and concluded that Croatia was sufficiently prepared to open talks on that chapter without additional benchmarks.
Croatia has so far been requested to submit its negotiating positions on nine chapters, and has submitted eight. It is now drawing up its position on the policy chapter on statistics, which was requested at the end of last year, and is expected to start drawing up its negotiating position on financial services shortly.
The EU task force for enlargement is discussing a joint negotiating position for intellectual property law, and the European Commission is drawing up joint positions for two other chapters - the right to establishment and financial control.
Next month Croatia can expect a positive assessment because it has met an additional standard for the opening of the chapter on justice, freedom and security, after which it is expected to be invited to submit its negotiating position.
The task force for enlargement is currently discussing reports on screening for four more chapters - company law, information society and media, transport policy, and taxation.
The EC is expected to draw up reports on screening for 11 chapters by March.
All this means that the fast pace achieved last year could be maintained this year and that a large number of policy chapters could be opened.
According to current estimates, Croatia will be given additional benchmarks for one-third of the chapters.