The meeting has been rescheduled for technical reasons, in agreement with the Croatian side, which will provide for a better preparation of Croatia's negotiators for this chapter, Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn's spokesperson Krisztina Nagy said responding to questions from Croatian reporters in Brussels.
The chairman of the national committee in charge of monitoring European Union entry negotiations, Ivica Racan, and chief negotiator Vladimir Drobnjak said yesterday that the screening of the judiciary and human rights chapter had been postponed until September at the EC's suggestion, so that Croatia could improve the situation in this area and obtain a positive report by the Commission.
Racan also said the postponement was made so that Croatia would have more time to improve the situation in the judiciary, notably with regard to backlog cases and corruption.
Later last night, Drobnjak said in Brussels the EC decision was not political but technical in nature and that it had been made in consultations between the EC and Croatian and Turkish negotiators.
He also said the decision should be seen as a friendly move on EC's part and certainly not as a punishment for failure to meet political criteria, and added that it would not slow down the screening process, which is expected to be completed by October.
Croatian Foreign Affairs and European Integration Minister Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic and the chief of the EC delegation in Croatia, Vincent Degert, said in Zagreb last night the decision was not a postponement but a rescheduling within the agreed screening framework.