In draft conclusions, the participants in the 12th Joint Consultative Committee meeting congratulate the Croatian authorities on the progress achieved in the EU membership accession process, notably in the alignment with the acquis.
However, the Committee underlines the need for improvement in the judiciary, the fight against corruption, the protection of human rights and minorities, highlighting the important role civil society organisations can play in those areas.
Committee co-chair Ana Milicevic Pezelj of the SSSH union federation said the meeting was very successful and effective.
Representatives of employers, who make up the Committee together with representatives of workers and civil society organisations, did not come to Brussels. Milicevic Pezelj said she did not know why.
She said at the meeting that unions and civil society organisations were no longer involved in decisions pertaining to Croatia's EU accession process after the dissolution of the National Committee monitoring the entry talks in July 2011, when the talks were completed. She said the government turned a deaf ear to their requests to be involved through another body.
In its conclusions, the Joint Consultative Committee underlined the need to include representatives of social partners and civil society organisations in events related to Croatia's EU entry.
Some conclusions refer to Croatia's preparation for the EU's regional policy and the proper use of structural and cohesion funds. The Committee urges putting EU aid programmes and their implementation within the remit of local communities as much as possible.
The Committee underlines the need to further reduce red tape and other legal procedures in the management of the EU's structural funds, to invest more effort in fighting corruption, and to inform applicants for EU funds in time and clearly.
The Committee calls for paying EU funds immediately after the completion of a project, and underlines the need to strengthen the capacities of institutions and improve the efficiency of civil society organisations in EU-related tasks and procedures.
The draft conclusions will be sent to EU and Croatian political institutions as a contribution to civil society.
The Croatian members of the Joint Consultative Committee were invited to attend as observers a plenary session of the European Economic and Social Committee in Brussels on Wednesday and Thursday.