The policy areas closed are Chapter 11 - Agriculture and Rural Development and Chapter 22 - Regional Policy and the Coordination of Structural Instruments, which brought the number of provisionally closed chapters to 30 of 35. The remaining chapters are Competition Policy, Fisheries, Judiciary and Fundamental Rights, Finance and Budgetary Provisions, and Other Issues.
The Other Issues chapter is a technical one and is not subject to negotiation. All the necessary work regarding Fisheries has been agreed upon and that chapter will be closed very soon. Competition Policy and Judiciary and Fundamental Rights remain the two toughest chapters.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele said that the Commission was not planning to propose introduction of a cooperation and verification mechanism for Croatia such as those introduced for Bulgaria and Romania. Instead, the Commission would continue monitoring Croatia after the signing of the accession treaty until the completion of the ratification process namely until the country's entry into the EU.
The Commission does not plan to propose any sort of mechanism for verification and monitoring as such a mechanism is incompatible with the credibility of the process, but it should be said that the Commission will continue monitoring Croatia's progress in the closed chapters and that monitoring will end with the end of the ratification process, when Croatia becomes a member, Fuele said.
Both the representatives of Croatia and the EU said the 15 April judgement of the UN war crimes tribunal in the case of generals Gotovina and Markac would not affect Croatia's accession process.
In response to reporters' questions, Croatian Foreign Affairs and European Integration Minister Gordan Jandrokovic said that Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor had not said that she would not accept the Hague tribunal's ruling.
I would like to be precise, this is a non-final ruling containing some allegations with which we disagree. In this regard we expect allegations, notably the one about a joint criminal, to be considered and overruled, Jandrokovic said.
It should be emphasised that it is a non-final ruling which in no way brings into question the Croatian Homeland Defence War and Croatia's right to liberate its territory from occupying forces, Jandrokovic said adding that Croatia had cooperated and would continue cooperating with the UN tribunal in The Hague.
As for a low support among the Croatians to their country's EU membership bid according to opinion polls conducted immediately after the tribunal rendered the ruling, the minister said that those findings did not reflect the real state of affairs on the ground.
It should be taken into account that the Croatians' support has been stable at the level between 55 and 64 percent in favour of the EU membership in the recent years and I am sure that the future opinion polls would show a rise in the backing, Jandrokovic said.
He said that one should remain calm and not link the ICTY rulings with Croatia's EU accession negotiations.
In response to reporters' questions, Commissioner Fuele refuted speculation about linking the end of Croatia's negotiating process with granting Serbia a status of candidate country, which was mentioned by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban last week.
I would like to use this opportunity to dismiss all speculations about any linking. We have clearly stated that each country is assessed according to its own merits, Fuele said.
After today's intergovernmental accession conference, a Council for Stabilisation and Accession of Croatia to the EU held its meeting in Brussels.