"I am positive that we are very close to the completion of the negotiations," Josipovic said in response to reporters' questions today.
"We are entering a new stage at which we must be aware that we have not finished reforms and that we must continue with them in all fields and that this is a task awaiting probably several more generations."
On Friday, the European Commission is expected to forward to the Council of the European Union draft negotiating positions for the remaining four chapters to be closed in the EU-Croatia membership talks. In this way, the Commission will have done its part of the job and it is now on the EU member-states to make a final decision on closing those policy chapters and on the conclusion of the negotiations.
A decision of this kind is likely to be made in the coming days.
Croatia has four chapters left to close: Chapter 23 - Judiciary and Fundamental Rights; Chapter 8 - Competition Policy; Chapter 33 - Finance and Budgetary Provisions, and Chapter 35 - Other Issues.
The negotiating area "Finance and Budgetary Provisions" must include a target date for Croatia's admission to the European bloc, and it is likely to be 1 July 2013. This policy chapter also defines how much money Croatia could get from the European budget and how much funds Croatia must pay into that budget by the end of the present Financial Perspective, a framework seven-year financial plan expiring on 31 December 2013.
The "Other Issues" policy chapter defines models of monitoring of how Croatia carries out its obligations from the conclusion of the negotiations until its entry into the bloc.
The enlargement working group of the Council of the EU is to start discussing the draft negotiating positions immediately on Friday.
Sources from the Hungarian EU presidency told Hina that this working group, which prepares decisions for the Committee of Permanent Representatives in the European Union (COREPER), made up of heads or deputy heads of missions from the EU member states in Brussels, would now work every day in order to ensure a consensus on the negotiating positions as soon as possible so as to pave the way for the closing of the above-mentioned four policy chapters and consequently for the conclusion of Croatia's EU membership talks.
The Hungarian presidency of the 27-strong EU bloc has convened an accession conference for 21 June in Luxembourg. Diplomats do not rule the possibility of convening another accession conference after the EU summit, which ends on 24 June.
The Council of the EU is already preparing a declaration on the conclusion of Croatia's entry talks which should be adopted at the 23-24 June EU summit, which would present a political decision on the completion of the talks.