According to the document, Croatia has made certain progress regarding commitments it should honour in order to become an EU member.
The Commission also on Wednesday published a report on progress which another candidate country, Turkey , has made so far in 2005, and gave its avis for Macedonia's application for membership candidacy. The Commission issued a report for the remaining countries covered by the Stabilisation and Association process (SAp), i.e. Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia-Montenegro and Albania.
The 2005 progress report on Croatia is the first report which the EC issued since the country was given the status of candidate country for the EU membership.
The 121-page report gives a detailed description of the relations between Croatia and the EU, and an analysis of the situation regarding the country's fulfillment of political and economic criteria for membership.
It also assesses Croatia's ability to take over obligations stemming from membership, which refer to the ability of the country to adjust its legislation to the acquis communautaire and implement those changes.
This report covers the period from 20 April 2004, when the Commission published its avis for Croatia's application for membership candidacy, to 30 September this year.
The Commission also published a draft decision on principles, priorities and conditions in line with the Accession Partnership with Croatia. This document, which should be approved by the European Council, outlines short-term and medium-term priorities in the accession process.
Croatia is not facing greater difficulties in its efforts to meet political criteria for EU membership. The problem which cropped up when the avis was announced, regarding full cooperation with the Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal, was solved in the meantime.
Croatia has continued to make progress, but it still needs make sustainable efforts in several important fields, the report read.
"The position of minorities has continued to improve, in general, but implementation of the Constitutional Law on National Minorities has been slow. Serbs and Roma continue to face discrimination and the need to improve their situation especially with respect to job opportunities as well as creating a more receptive climate in the country is an urgent priority. There have been positive developments on refugee return but progress has been particularly weak in implementing housing care programmes for former tenancy rights holders. Particular attention should be paid to ensuring all ethnically motivated incidents are properly investigated and those responsible are prosecuted," read key findings of the 2005 progress report on Croatia, which were published on the EC web site.
There has been good progress in the area of regional cooperation from Croatia but more efforts are needed to find definitive solutions to all pending bilateral issues, particularly as regards borders with Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia-Montenegro and Slovenia.
The report reiterates that Croatia's full cooperation with ICTY needs to be maintained and the last remaining indictee must be located, arrested and transferred to The Hague.
According to the key findings from the report, "Croatia can be regarded as a functioning market economy. It should be able to cope with competitive pressure and market forces within the Union in the medium term, provided that it continues implementing its reform programme to remove remaining weaknesses."