Croatia may not finish European Union membership negotiations by the end of 2010 as hoped. The country could instead be looking at the beginning of 2011.The number of those sceptical of Croatia's ability to finish the negotiations will likely increase next week when it becomes clear that Croatia cannot open all the membership chapters that remain.A prerequisite for EU memberships is a demonstration of a country's ability to translate all of the 35 chapters of the EU law into the national law.The chapters on Competition Policy, Judiciary and Fundamental Rights, and Foreign Security and Defence Policy remain closed and instead of being opened in April as expected, they may be pushed to June.An EU source said: "We know that Croatia has made big progress, but there is too little time for those processes to conclude by the end of the year, especially the reforms of the judiciary and public administration."The EU has advised Croatia to learn from the mistakes of Bulgaria and Romania, the Croatian daily Jutarnji List reports. "You will either come in clean, or you will not come in at all. We will no longer allow cases like Bulgaria and Romania," EU said.One of the main complaints currently against Bulgaria is that there has not been a single verdict yet for a case of a high-level corruption.
Source: Croatian Times Online News
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