Croatia is certain it will complete its European Union entry talks by the end of July, the country's chief EU negotiator, Vladimir Drobnjak, told parliament on Friday, according to Reuters. Earlier this week EU foreign ministers said they were waiting for a report by the European Commission on the progress of the talks before deciding whether to finalise the negotiations and set an entry date. Croatia has yet to close talks in 5 out of 35 chapters and among those are the two toughest ones -- the judiciary and competition policy. "We have very good chances to complete the talks in June. If not in June, then surely a few weeks after that, in July," Drobnjak told the Croatian parliament. He said Croatia expected to agree an accession date in June and to sign the accession treaty during the Polish EU presidency in the second half of the year. The government had said it hoped to finish the talks in June or before the summer, but Drobnjak was the first government official to give such a firm target date. Some EU member states have expressed doubts about the extent to which Croatia has implemented judicial reforms, and at the meeting this week some EU capitals said they wanted more proof Croatia's anti-corruption reforms had gone far enough to combat pervasive abuse. France has proposed that a monitoring mechanism be imposed on Croatia until it joins the bloc to check whether it has kept up its compliance with all EU criteria, but Austria and some other members oppose the idea. Croatia would be only the second former Yugoslav republic, after Slovenia, to join the wealthy bloc, and would probably do so in 2013. Other western Balkan countries are a long way behind, but Serbia made a major move forwards this week by arresting its top war crimes suspect, former general Ratko Mladic. It hopes this will clear the way for it to be given official candidate status.
