According to the draft which the European Commission is expected to adopt on Wednesday, "the Commission confirms its earlier assessment that Croatia continues to meet the political criteria. Efforts must continue to strengthen the rule of law, by improving public administration and the justice system, and by fighting corruption and organised crime effectively. As regards the economic criteria, Croatia is a functioning market economy."
The pre-accession monitoring was introduced to make sure the country joins the EU ready, without the need for monitoring after accession. The accession treaty says the European Commission will monitor how Croatia is meeting the commitments undertaken during the accession negotiations in the period between the completion of the negotiations and the accession scheduled for July 1 next year.
Some EU countries link the positive monitoring results with the ratification of the accession treaty in their parliaments, and this report does not give any EU country motive to stall with the ratification.
The European Commission released its first monitoring report on the three most challenging acquis communautaire chapters on April 24 and this is the first and last comprehensive report covering all chapters.
For the three most challenging chapters - Competition Policy; Judiciary and Fundamental Rights; Justice, Freedom and Security - the Commission will release another, final report next April.
The comprehensive report covers the period from the last progress report issued in October 2011 to September 2012, containing assessments of the state of preparedness for membership and pointing out the areas in which further effort is necessary so Croatia could be ready to join the EU next July.
The Commission says Croatia has continued to make progress in adopting and implementing EU legislation and is now completing its alignment with the acquis, but has identified some areas where "further efforts" are necessary and a "limited number of issues" where "increased efforts" are required.
Further progress is required in preparations for future EU structural funds, the restructuring of the shipbuilding industry, the strengthening of the rule of law through continued implementation of commitments to improve public administration and the justice system, preventing and fighting corruption effectively, and the management of external borders.
The Commission has identified ten issues in which "particular attention should be paid by Croatia in the coming months in the areas of competition policy, judiciary and fundamental rights, justice, freedom and security."
Those issues are: signing a privatisation contract for the Brodosplit shipyard and taking the necessary decisions to find a viable solution for the 3. Maj and Brodotrogir shipyards in order to complete the restructuring of the shipbuilding industry; implementing the short term measures elaborated in September 2012 for increasing the efficiency of the judiciary and reducing the court backlog; adopting the new enforcement legislation in order to ensure the execution of court decisions and reduce the backlog of enforcement cases; establishing the Conflict of Interest Commission so that it starts working; adopting the new law on access to information in order to strengthen the legal and administrative framework in the area of access to information; completing the adoption of related by-laws to ensure the implementation of the police law; completing the construction of border crossing points at the Neum corridor; achieving the established recruitment target for border police for 2012; finalising and adopting the migration strategy with clearly defined measures for the integration of the most vulnerable group of migrants; and increasing the capacity to translate and revise the acquis so that this task can be completed in time for accession.
The Commission says Croatia continues to meet the requirements in the three most challenging chapters stemming from the accession negotiations and that, with additional effort, it can fulfil the remaining commitments by the time of accession.
The Commission says it will continue monitoring the fulfilment of the commitments undertaken in the accession negotiations, focusing on the issues identified in the comprehensive monitoring report, adding that "if circumstances would so warrant, make use of all instruments available under Article 36 of the Act of Accession."
The article envisages the possibility of taking appropriate measures if issues causing concern are identified during the monitoring, although those measures are not defined.
"The Council, acting by qualified majority on a proposal from the Commission, may take all appropriate measures if issues of concern are identified during the monitoring process. The measures shall be maintained no longer than strictly necessary and, in any case, shall be lifted by the Council, acting in accordance with the same procedure, when the relevant issues of concern have been effectively addressed," says Article 36.