Slovenia’s Rupel Doubts Croatia in EU by 2009

I think that Croatia can open all chapters by October 2009, but I do not know if it is possible to close them, Rupel said.

ZAGREB, CROATIA – Slovenian  Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmitrij Rupel stated on Sunday in Paris that Croatia could open all chapters by autumn 2009, but he is not sure the all of them can be closed. 

- I think that it is possible to open all chapters, but I do not know whether they can be closed. We will have to work intensively in order to carry out negotiations. Croatia has 20 open chapters, by the end of July they will open some more, and maybe some more this years. In regards to opening the chapters, probably there will be no problems, but as regards closing the chapters probably there will be, as they concern complicated issues – said Rupel.

The Slovenian minister is participating at Ministerial meeting of the Barcelona process in Paris – Mediterranean Union.

Rupel said the Slovenia never blocked or intends to block Croatia. Slovenia is a member of the EU, and as the other members it has to respect the rules and the European legislation, he said. I hope that Croatia continues as it started, that it engages, I even hope they speed up their preparations for the European Union. There is a lot of work to do, said the Slovenian minister.

Croatia is planning to open all chapters by the end of this year, and to close them by the end of the term of the European Commission, October 13, 2009.

France, which took over the presidency of the Union in July 1 after Slovenia, announced that they will continue to open the remaining chapters and to close as many as possible by the end of the years.

The French presidency intends to common an intergovernmental conference on the Croatian access by the end of July. The date still has not been officially fixed, but the ideal date for now seems to be July 25, when Croatia, according to diplomatic sources, could open and close a chapter.