After the launching of membership talks on 3 October, Croatia underwent the processes of screening, an in-debt analysis of the adjustment of its legislation with that of the EU, the phase before concrete negotiations on each chapter. Since October 20, when the process of screening started, seven chapters have been scanned. The screening process for five of those seven chapters ended on 16 December.
A total of 18 explanatory and 15 bilateral meeting will be held by the end of March 2006.
The screening of each chapter is being held in two phases. In the first phase, the so-called explanatory meeting, representatives of the European Commission are explaining the European acquis communautaire to candidate countries and in the second phase - the bilateral meeting - representatives of candidate countries report the differences between their domestic legislation and that of the EU.
After the screening process, the European Commission draws a report and sends it to the Council of the EU, together with the recommendation on the opening of negotiations for that chapter.
The entire screening process should be completed by September 2006.