Yesterday, foreign minister Mikulas Dzurinda announced that Croatia could see its EU accession process culminate already in June this year.
Dzurinda made the announcement jointly with his Austrian counterpart Michael Spindelegger while they were on a special one-day visit to Croatia yesterday, which was initiated by Dzurinda. They met with the Croatian President, Prime Minister and other top officials.
Croatia started made its request to join the EU back in 2003, becoming a candidate country a year later, before launching the negotiation process in 2005. Five of the thirty-three chapters of the negotiation process are still open, but everything is on track for the country to finalise these by the end of June.
There is no guarantee that Croatia will then become a fully-fledged EU member, though, as the country will have to hold a referendum. This could turn out bad as EU sentiment was not helped by the sentencing of two generals for war crimes, as some 95% of the population allegedly thought the sentences to be unfair.