Croatia “can join EU by 2013”

There is a desire to join the EU on January 1, 2013 which is an attainable but an ambitious goal, Croat President Ivo Josipovic has said. “That’s very ambitious, since we are very close to concluding the negotiations,” he stated. Croatia “can join EU by 2013” “It will take several months to prepare the agreements and then sign them, possibly a long ratification process follows after that, bearing in mind that some countries have even longer procedures that are underway in their parliaments,” Josipovic explained. Commenting on U.S. State Department report on human rights in Croatia which warns about corruption in the government, domestic violence and problems regarding the freedom of assembly, he said that Croatia did not need the U.S. report in order to realize this because “we know all that here and are working on making things better”. “Speaking about corruption, many cases have been opened and when it comes about the report on the government, it means the entire administration, not only the government in the narrow sense,” the Croatian president stressed. Pointing out that many high officials and directors of certain institutions were under investigation, he said that it meant that Croatia was fighting against corruption, which was a positive thing. Ivo Josipovic (Tanjug, file)

Croatia “can join EU by 2013”

“It will take several months to prepare the agreements and then sign them, possibly a long ratification process follows after that, bearing in mind that some countries have even longer procedures that are underway in their parliaments,” Josipović explained.

Commenting on U.S. State Department report on human rights in Croatia which warns about corruption in the government, domestic violence and problems regarding the freedom of assembly, he said that Croatia did not need the U.S. report in order to realize this because “we know all that here and are working on making things better”.

“Speaking about corruption, many cases have been opened and when it comes about the report on the government, it means the entire administration, not only the government in the narrow sense,” the Croatian president stressed.

Pointing out that many high officials and directors of certain institutions were under investigation, he said that it meant that Croatia was fighting against corruption, which was a positive thing.