France has no doubts about it and would like to help speed things up and make the 27-strong EU bloc even more united, said the chairman of the French Senate's European integration committee, Jacques Blanc, while responding to reporters' questions whether his country has doubts about Croatia's preparedness to wrap up the EU membership talks in June.
France is confident that this is not only in Croatia's interest to join the EU but also in the EU's interest to have Croatia as one of its members, the French official said after meeting Croatian Parliament representatives.
The French Senate delegation held talks with Croatian Deputy Speaker and European integration committee chairman, Neven Mimica, the head of the Croatian committee overseeing EU entry talks, Vesna Pusic, and other parliamentarians about Croatia's EU aspirations.
Asked whether Croatia needed the EU monitoring after the conclusion of the negotiations, Blanc said that the Croatian parliament together with the European Commission and EU members would set up a sort of control mechanism to ensure further reform.
Blanc said that there was mention of monitoring not because of doubts but in order to accelerate things.
In the EU decisions are made by all 27 member-states, and it is necessary to envisage mechanisms to step up processes, he added.
At our talks today we saw and felt that we could count on Croatia continuing reforms, the French official added.
After the last accession conference in April, European Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele said that the European Commission did not plan to propose verification and control mechanisms as had been imposed on Bulgaria and Romania. Instead, the Commission would continue monitoring until Croatia's admission to the EU.
Asked about possible target dates for Croatia's admission to the EU, Pusic said today that different dates were being mentioned and added that this was important as the date was necessary for the European Commission to prepare policy chapter No. 33 "Finance and Budgetary Provisions", which regulates the financial obligations of both Croatia and the EU.
"Our attention is focused on the date for the completion of the negotiations. We think June would be possible and appropriate for all sides," Pusic said.