The European Commission proposed to close the four remaining “chapters” in the accession talks. The President of the Commission, José Manuel Barroso, stated in a statement that Croatia is now ready to move ahead. He also thanked the Croatian authorities for the hard work done over the last years.

The European Commission released its evaluation on the four remaining chapters after the decision taken on closing the fisheries chapter during the Croatia’s accession negotiations, held in Brussels on 6 June 2011. In total, 35 chapters have been taken under consideration.

The latest chapters remain opened are competition policy; judiciary and fundamental rights; financial and budgetary provisions, and other issues. The chapters Nº 8 on competition policy, and Nº 23 on judiciary and fundamental rights, are the more sensitive and they require much effort from Croatia. In the case of the former, the privatisation of state-owned ship factories must be brought in harmony with the EU regulations on state aid. While in the case of the latter achievements, it must be demonstrated through several performance-measurement benchmarks.

Péter Györkös, Hungary’s Permanent Representative in Brussels stressed that, if the European Commission evaluation's on the four remaining chapters is positive, the Hungarian Presidency will do its utmost to close the negotiations before the end of the Presidency’s term. Closing accession negotiations with Croatia by 30 June is one of the key priorities of the Hungarian Presidency.

Mr. Barroso added that this is an important step forward by Croatia towards membership and is also a signal to the rest to of South Eastern Europe. For the Commission President it shows that enlargement works, and that structural European reforms in the countries pay off. He also hopes that Croatia's progress will be an inspiration to the other partners to reinvigorate their reform efforts and to deliver to the benefit of their people.