Rehn told a news conference the European Union was ready for rigorous and fair negotiations with Croatia and Turkey, and that the screening process would begin on October 20 for both countries.
The screening is a thorough analysis of how much the legislation of a candidate country is adjusted to European rules. The process is led by the European Commission and precedes negotiations on each of the 35 chapters of the acquis communautaire, the European legal standards.
This year Croatia will begin the screening for seven chapters.
The intention is to simultaneously screen the easier and the more difficult chapters. Some of the easier are science, research, education and statistics, while agriculture, the judiciary and internal affairs are considered to be the most demanding.
When a chapter has been screened, negotiations on the field in question may begin.