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Croatia may move further on EU path in Dec
The former Yugoslav republic, which hopes to join the 27-nation EU in 2012, resumed talks in October after a 10-month stalemate due to a border dispute with EU neighbour Slovenia. It has since had two negotiating sessions to make up for lost time.
"We don't know the date and the number of chapters on the agenda, but our intention is to organise one more accession conference," Sweden's ambassador to Croatia, Fredrik Vahlquist, told a news conference.
Candidates have to clinch agreement on entry terms in 33 policy areas or chapters. Croatia has so far opened talks on 28 chapters and closed 15.
Some of the toughest areas are still ahead, notably on judicial reform and competition policy, which concerns the fate of ailing shipyards kept alive by high state subsidies.
"Croatia is moving in the right direction, but a few important challenges are still ahead. They include fight against corruption and organised crime, cooperation with the U.N. war crimes tribunal and tenders for shipyards," said chief EU envoy to Croatia Paul Vandoren.
Croatia has won EU praise for launching several high-profile graft cases in major state companies this year.
Its most immediate problem is the Hague war crimes tribunal chief prosecutor, Serge Brammertz, who insists Zagreb must do more to find documents from the 1991-95 war of independence, which he has requested.
BRAMMERTZ'S REPORT KEY
Zagreb says it has done all it could, but some documents had been destroyed or never existed. Brammertz is to report on Croatia's cooperation to the U.N. Security Council on Thursday.
Several EU members have indicated they would block Croatia from opening the judiciary chapter until Brammertz gives green light. That could once again slow Zagreb's progress.
Croatia must also cut subsidies to ailing industries, which breach EU rules, and sell off its six shipyards, five of which have been accumulating losses for years.
After Croatia joins, possibly with Iceland, analysts say the EU is likely to take a long pause in enlargement.
Candidate Turkey and the rest of the Western Balkans -- Serbia, Albania, Bosnia, Montenegro and Kosovo -- lag behind in their level of readiness to join.
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