ZAGREB, July 8 (Hina) - European Commission President Romano Prodi will pay an official visit to Zagreb on Thursday, when he will hand government officials a questionnaire with close to 4,000 questions which Croatia is expected to
answer before the European Commission approves its application for membership in the European Union.
ZAGREB, July 8 (Hina) - European Commission President Romano Prodi
will pay an official visit to Zagreb on Thursday, when he will hand
government officials a questionnaire with close to 4,000 questions
which Croatia is expected to answer before the European Commission
approves its application for membership in the European Union. #L#
Croatia applied for EU membership in February and the EU Council of
Europe of Ministers entrusted the European Commission as early as
April with drawing up an avis (evaluation) on the candidacy. This
task should take about a year.
The Croatian foreign ministry previously stated that the first
draft avis could be completed in January next year, while the final
version could be made public in April.
The questionnaire is an important part of the standard procedure of
drawing up an avis for each country applying for EU membership.
The usual deadline for answering the questions is three months, but
in Croatia's case it could be extended due to upcoming summer
holidays.
After the EC draws up the avis, it is forwarded to the EU Council of
Ministers, which discusses it thoroughly at all levels and then
prepares its own report which serves as the basis for the adoption
of a political decision on granting candidate status by the
European Council.
Senior Croatian officials stated previously that they hoped
Croatia would be given the status of an official candidate by the
end of the Irish six-month presidency of the Union, June 2004.
Zagreb also hopes that talks on full EU membership could start in
the autumn next year, so that the country could wrap them up by the
end of 2006 and be ready for a possible next expansion round a year
later.
(hina) rml sb