Eurasia Press & News
The European Commission has provisionally closed two more chapters in Croatia’s EU accession talks, moving the country further along the path to EU membership.
Croatian and EU negotiators on Tuesday closed Chapter 12 – Food Safety, Veterinary and Phytosanitary Policy, and Chapter 32 – Financial Control.
At the end of June this year Croatia made a major step towards EU membership when it opened the final remaining chapters in its accession talks. The most significant and challenging of these is Chapter 23, which covers the judiciary and fundamental rights. Brussels agreed to the opening of this chapter only after Croatia was given a positive evaluation by Serge Brammertz, the chief prosecutor at the UN war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Zagreb started accession negotiations with the European Union in October 2005, and has since closed 22 chapters out of 33 in total.
Croatia hopes to be the next state to join the European Union, and will almost certainly be the second former Yugoslav republic to become a member of the bloc, after Slovenia joined in 2004.
