Written answers

Thursday, 23 April 2009

Department of Foreign Affairs

EU Enlargement

5:00 am

Photo of Lucinda CreightonLucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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Question 62: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the status of Croatian accession to the EU; if it will be affected by the delays to the ratification of the Lisbon treaty; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14625/09]

Photo of Micheál MartinMicheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Croatia hopes to conclude its accession negotiations in 2009. The European Commission has produced a road map for their conclusion, but this depends on Croatia making the required progress on the outstanding issues. These include privatising shipyards; judicial reform; organised crime; minority rights; and cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

To date, Croatia has opened 22 of the 35 chapters of the negotiations, of which 7 have been provisionally closed. A dispute with Slovenia over maritime and land borders has blocked the opening of a further eleven chapters to date. Unfortunately, an Intergovernmental Conference on accession scheduled for 27 March could not proceed as a result of the dispute and has been postponed until 24 April. I hope that the two sides can find a way to resolving the issue so that the accession negotiations are not adversely affected. When the negotiations with Croatia are completed, the Accession Treaty will need to be ratified by all 27 Member States.

Given the progress still required on a number of outstanding issues in the accession negotiations and the Government's intention to seek the approval of the Irish people to ratify the Lisbon Treaty subject to specific guarantees, thereby allowing the Treaty to enter into force by the end of 2009, I would hope that Croatia's accession will not be delayed by considerations related to ratification of the Lisbon Treaty.

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