The Committee of the Regions welcomed the Commission's positive report on the Croatia accession
The President of the Committee of the Regions (CoR), Mercedes Bresso welcomed the positive recommendation from the European Commission regarding the future EU accession of Croatia. She also stated that the CoR would also support Croatia's local and regional authorities in their decentralisation and administrative reforms.
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 this evaluation, the Commission recommended to close the latest opened chapters. In total, 35 chapters have been taken under consideration.
In December 2009, the CoR approved the request of the Croatian authorities to upgrade its Working Group that had existed since 2006 to a Joint Consultative Committee (JCC). The CoR has also supported several regional initiatives in the Western Balkans such as the Adriatic Ionian Initiative where Croatia is fully engaged in launching a macro-regional strategy. In May 2011, CoR President Mercedes Bresso discussed the outcome of decentralisation reforms in Zagreb with Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor.
Currently, the CoR is preparing its opinion on Enlargement Strategy and Main Challenges in which the responsible of the report, Franz Schausberger, recalls that one of the main political priorities of the Committee of the Regions is to secure the success of the enlargement process. He highlighted that further measures will have to be taken in Croatia under the regional policy chapter to involve local authorities more in the implementation of EU policies, and that Croatia needs to provide thorough training for administrative staff and politicians also at the local and regional level. In addition, speedy implementation of the new legislation is crucial so as to improve the provision of decentralised services for the public and build up a modern, efficient public administration, the draft opinion states.
The CoR also support Croatia's local and regional authorities in order to prepare them for their future responsibilities and to foster cooperation with the relevant European institutions.