On Wednesday, a week sooner than originally planned, the European Union's executive arm adopted the interim report on the policy chapter which is regarded as the toughest negotiating area in Croatia's EU accession negotiations.
Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele was quoted on the EC website as saying that he commended "the Croatian government's efforts in this key chapter" and said that the aim to complete the EU membership talks in June was very ambitious.
"The Commission continues to support Croatia on the last stretch of its path towards EU membership and is ready to propose the closing of negotiations as soon as Croatia has met all remaining requirements identified in today's report," he said.
The ball is in Croatia's court and this report does not close the door as far as deadlines are concerned, Fuele said when asked if Croatia could complete the talks in June.
Calling on Croatia to redouble its efforts in meeting all benchmarks necessary for provisionally closing Chapter 23, the Commission says in its conclusions that it will continue closely monitoring Croatia's progress and support Croatia through technical expertise and financial assistance.
As soon as the Commission establishes that Croatia has met all benchmarks for closing Chapter 23, it will forward to the Council of EU a report on benchmarks and a draft negotiating position for closing the policy chapter in accordance with usual procedure.
The Commission considers ten benchmarks for the provisional closure of the Judiciary and Fundamental Rights chapter covering four areas: judiciary; fight against corruption and organised crime; fundamental rights; and co-operation with the UN tribunal for war crimes (ICTY).
As regards judiciary, Croatia has adopted a series of measures to strengthen the independence of judiciary, including the constitutional changes in regulations for appointing the State Judicial Appointment Council and the State Prosecutorial Appointment Council.
The Commission, however, notes that Croatia has not yet established convincing and credible track records in the nomination and appointment of judges and prosecutors on the basis of the application of integrated, transparent and objective criteria, given that the State Judicial Appointment Council and the State Prosecutorial Appointment Council have been only recently established.
As regards the backlog of court cases, Croatia reduced the total backlog by 1.3 percent from December 2009 to December 2010. The backlog dating from the previous period was cut down by 10.6 percent, but the number of civil cases that had been in the procedure for more than three years increased by 3.8 percent, according to the Commission.
Concerning war crimes, the Commission notes Croatia's progress in unbiased trials and in completing a number of proceedings against people of various ethnic backgrounds.
The Commission calls on Croatia to continue with war crimes trials at domestic courts.
Concerning the fight against corruption, Croatia has strengthened the capacities of the USKOK investigating agency, and the police have become more efficient, the EC said in its conclusions.
It says that no court ruling has been yet made in high-profile corruption cases and in corruption in public procurement.
Brussels calls for testing courts' ability to adequately conduct cases.
Croatia is commended for the improved legislative framework in prevention of corruption and conflict of interest. However, some provisions need to be tested in practice, the Commission says.
Croatia is praised for approving general protection of ethnic minorities and the conclusions note that the country has taken steps to promote reconciliation and tolerance among citizens, however, a palpable progress is needed in employment of members of ethnic minorities.
Concerning the provision of housing for former tenancy right holders, the action plan for 2008 was fully implemented and the plan for 2009 needed an additional 2,070 flats.
Concerning human rights protection, Croatia has improved the legislative framework and access to the judiciary.
Croatia has begun establishing track-records in the implementation of the legislation against discrimination and the legislation against hate crime.
Concerning cooperation with the Hague-based ICTY tribunal, the Commission says that an inter-agency governmental commission has started exploring new avenues of investigation to establish what happened with missing military documents wanted by the tribunal and that the ICTY Chief Prosecutor will submit a report on the matter to the UN Security Council in May.