With this, Croatia's membership talks were separated from Turkey's negotiations.
The chapter on education and culture is the second chapter Croatia has opened and closed since the start of its EU entry talks, after the chapter on science and research, which was opened and provisionally closed on June 12.
After this evening's meeting of the EU-Croatia intergovernmental conference, Erkki Tuomioja, the Foreign Minister of Finland, that is chairing the Union until the end of December, told reporters that it was likely that yet another intergovernmental conference be held until the end of this year for Croatia and the Union to open and close negotiations on three more policy chapters.
The EU Presidency hopes that yet another accession conference may be held until the end of this year, Tuomioja said adding that the Council of the EU was currently harmonising the common negotiating position on the three policy chapters: the economic and monetary policy, entrepreneurship and industrial policy and customs union.
Foreign Affairs and European Integration Minister Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic, who was at the helm of Croatia's delegation, expressed satisfaction with the provisional closing of the negotiations on education and culture.
European Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn told the joint news conference that it is not only in Brussels where negotiations are being conducted but that they are also a matter of reforms on the ground in Croatia.
Over the past year Croatia has made significant steps to adopt the European legislation. Further reforms are necessary to establish a more open society and competitive economy for the benefit of Croatia's citizens, the EC official added.