At the end of Germany's presidency I can conclude that headway has been made in Croatia's relations with the EU and I believe that Portugal's presidency would continue to proceed in the same direction, the ambassador said. Germany's presidency has some credit for that because it tried to accelerate Croatia's EU entry talks, Peters told a news conference organised to mark the end of Germany's Presidency of the EU, 30 June.
Peters said that the most important event during his country's presidency of the EU was last week's summit in Brussels, at which the EU heads of state and governments agreed to set up an inter-governmental conference which is expected to harmonise the text of the new European agreement by the year's end so that national parliament could ratify it before the elections for the European Parliament, scheduled for spring 2009,
The foundations for the accession of your country are now laid, on condition that all chapters are completed, Peters said, expressing satisfaction with the fact that six new chapters of the European acquis communautaire were opened in Brussels on Tuesday, stressing that it was a breakthrough in the country's accession process.