Croatia provides written consent for chapter opening

Croatia provides written consent for chapter opening

Presenting his country's presidency, which start in a month's time, Slovak FM Miroslav Lajcak said that after chapter 23 had been unblocked, new chapters were expected to be opened.

Croatia had indeed secured its demands toward Serbia entering the Serbia-EU negotiation process - "but not in the way Zagreb demanded," a Belgrade daily reported earlier.

According to Vecernje Novosti's correspondent in Zagreb, in shaping the criteria for chapters 23 and 24, "Croatian demands have not been accepted under the formulations that Zagreb asked" and are instead "much milder and adapted to the European practice."

Diplomats in Brussels will receive from Zagreb the permission to allow defining the criteria for chapters 23 and 24 with Serbia, "which means that Zagreb has abandoned its blockade (of Serbia's EU accession talks)," writes the newspaper.

There will also be insistence that the two countries resolve bilateral problems in order to avoid another attempt to block Serbia on its European path.

In recent days Zagreb has been under strong diplomatic pressure from Brussels, but also from European allies who asked it to abandon its blockade of chapter 23, so that it can be opened during the Dutch presidency, by the end of June.

Croatian Foreign Minister Miro Kovac said on Tuesday that Croatia's conditions are Serbia's obligation, and that without respecting those conditions there would be no progress in the Serbia's EU accession negotiations.