Dinny McGinley (Donegal South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 51: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if all obstacles have been cleared to make way for Croatia's entry to the EU; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21871/09]

Micheál 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 the conclusion of these negotiations, but this depends on Croatia making the required progress on the outstanding issues. These include privatising shipyards; judicial reform; organised crime; minority rights; and co-operation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

To date, Croatia has opened 22 of the 35 chapters of the negotiations. Of these, seven negotiating chapters have been provisionally closed. A dispute with Slovenia over maritime and land borders has blocked the opening of a further eleven chapters. Two planned intergovernmental conferences with Croatia to deal with accession issues have been postponed. The European Commissioner for Enlargement, Olli Rehn, has made a number of proposals to try and solve the border issue in a way that would allow the accession negotiations to proceed. His latest proposals are still being considered by the parties.

Ireland is fully supportive of Commissioner Rehn's efforts to find a solution to the impasse. A resolution to this dispute would give a significant boost to the accession process by removing one of the few remaining obstacles to the further progress of the negotiations.