Future EU presidency holder expects Croatia to join Union in 2009

03/09/2008

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- The Czech Republic expects to move EU membership talks with Croatia into the last lap during its EU presidency, which begins in January, Czech Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra said on Tuesday (September 2nd). "We expect to move to the final stage the talks with at least Croatia," Vondra told a news conference in Brussels. He said it is realistic to expect the talks to be completed successfully under the Czech or the Swedish EU presidency in 2009. "Croatia will of course have to speed up [its efforts]," he added.

Meanwhile, a statement from current EU presidency holder France suggested that Albania will have to wait longer for EU candidate status."This region needs to work more. At the moment we are working more with Croatia and Serbia," media reports quoted French State Secretary for European Affairs as saying. (HINA, Vecernji List, Reuters, EUObserver, CTK, Top Channel, Telegrafi, Klan, Alsat - 02/09/08)