EU accession on track

Vjesnik is welcoming suggestions from diplomats that “the report on Croatia will be positive." The Zagreb daily reveals that "according to preliminary information, the Commission has noted the progress made in negotiations, but has also remarked on what remains undone." Vjesnik therefore considers that Croatia has a good chance of meeting its goal of wrapping up negotiations for its accession to the EU before the end of June. "At the intergovernmental conference in Luxembourg in April, Croatia will close three negotiating chapters on agriculture, fisheries and regional policy," the newspaper explains. "The two most difficult chapters, on justice and competition," should then be concluded. Vjesnik also assures its readers that the Netherlands will not stand in the way of Croatia’s candidacy, regardless of how the prosecutor of the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia chooses to exercise his discretion with regard to the cooperation (or lack of) of the Croatian authorities.