EU Says Croatia Can Conclude Entry Talks in 2009

Barroso told a joint news conference: ´I have every confidence that Croatia should be able to meet the conditions´.

Croatia should be able to conclude negotiations in 2009 to become the next country to join the European Union, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Thursday.

Speaking after talks with Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, he told a joint news conference: "I have every confidence that Croatia should be able to meet the conditions ... It should be possible to conclude the technical negotiations next year, preferably by the end of the mandate of this Commission (in November 2009)."

The explicit pledge of a target date came after the former Yugoslav republic's parliament voted early on Thursday to allow EU fishermen to enter a protected no-fishing zone reaching into the middle of the Adriatic Sea it imposed on Jan. 1.