BRUSSELS, May 17 (Hina) - The opinion of the European Commission on Croatia's application for membership of the European Union, which recommended opening membership talks, will be discussed next month at a session of the Council of
Ministers and an EU summit, the foreign ministers of 25 EU member states confirmed in Brussels on Monday.
BRUSSELS, May 17 (Hina) - The opinion of the European Commission on
Croatia's application for membership of the European Union, which
recommended opening membership talks, will be discussed next month at
a session of the Council of Ministers and an EU summit, the foreign
ministers of 25 EU member states confirmed in Brussels on Monday.#L#
The Council has taken note that the Commission's avis on the Croatian
application for membership has replaced this year's progress report on
the stabilisation and association process and that it will be
considered in June at a session of the Council of Ministers and the
European Council, the foreign ministers said in their conclusions on
the annual report on the stabilisation and association process for
Southeast Europe.
At the end of March the European Commission released this year's
progress report for four countries covered by the stabilisation and
association process. No report was made for Croatia this year because
the Commission worked on the avis.
The Council of Ministers is scheduled to meet in Luxembourg on June
14, while the European Council, consisting of the presidents or heads
of government of the 25 member states, will meet in Brussels on June
17 and 18, when Croatia is expected to be given candidate status and
possibly a date for the start of talks on full membership.
On April 20 the European Commission published a very favourable
opinion on Croatia's EU membership application, saying that Croatia
was a functioning democracy with a market economy, and recommended
that membership talks be opened with Zagreb.
The Croatian government expects membership talks to start at the end
of this year or the beginning of the next.
The Ministerial Council welcomed a proposal by the European Commission
that a European partnership be established with five countries covered
by the stabilisation and admission process -- Albania,
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia-Montenegro. The
Council is expected to adopt the proposal in the next few weeks.
(Hina) vm