EU executive to recommend Croatia accession-source
Tue, 7 Jun 2011 14:53 GMT
* Croatia hopes to join EU in 2013
* EU executive satisfied with membership preparations
* Commission has recognised our efforts -Croatian PM
(Adds Croatian PM comment, further Barroso comment)
BRUSSELS, June 7 (Reuters) - The European Commission is set to recommend on Friday that EU member governments finalise accession talks with Croatia, clearing an important hurdle on Zagreb's path to joining the 27-strong bloc, a source said.
A source at the European Commission said on Tuesday the executive will advise that Croatia is ready for such a move after making satisfactory progress in difficult negotiating areas such as competition policy and justice reforms.
Such a recommendation will probably persuade many EU governments to agree to complete talks with Zagreb in the coming weeks.
"It is quite certain now that it is a matter of days before we conclude the EU entry talks. What is most important, I think we can say now that the European Commission has recognised that Croatia has done its job," Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor told reporters.
Croatia, which started accession talks in late 2005, hopes to become an EU member in 2013.
"I expect the Commission to propose closing remaining chapters on Friday. The ... commissioners endorsed this today," the source said.
Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso also indicated that Croatia had done enough to satisfy the EU executive it was time to finalise the talks.
"We are about to reach a decisive moment in Croatia's long journey towards EU membership. I believe there will be very good news on Friday," he said in a statement.
"The Croatian authorities, and particularly the current government, have worked very hard to meet the conditions they have been set. They will soon be able, I am sure, to reap the rewards of that hard work."
Despite the Commission's backing, some EU governments may want to take discussions on Croatia's readiness slowly, because of concerns over corruption and Zagreb's progress in coming to terms with its role in ethnic wars in the Balkans in the 1990s.
Croatia would become the second EU member from the former Yugoslavia after Slovenia, which joined in 2004.
(Reporting by Justyna Pawlak; Additional reporting by Igor Ilic in Zagreb; Editing by Rex Merrifield and Tim Pearce)
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