The Republic of Croatia expects a remarkably important decision of the European Council on determining a date for the opening of negotiations on full membership with the European Union on 17 December 2004. After becoming a candidate country in line with the positive Opinion from April 2004 and the Decision of the European Council from June 2004, the next step in the integration is of fundamental significance for the Republic of Croatia.
An unconditional decision on the date for the opening of negotiations, in accordance with the term “at the beginning of 2005,” as already adopted by the European Council, is remarkably important not only for the Republic of Croatia, but also for the entire Southeast Europe within the framework of the EU Thessaloniki Declaration and the European perspective of the entire region.
We invite the EU Member States and European parliamentarians to recognize the integral value of the integration of the Republic of Croatia into the European Union and to encourage a positive public attitude and a favorable political decision of the European Council.
All political parties represented in the Croatian Parliament, in addition to broad support and high public expectations, believe that the Republic of Croatia has made strenuous efforts and achieved significant positive steps in fulfilling the Copenhagen Criteria and recommendations of the European Commission, including cooperation with the ICTY.
With this statement, we reiterate the fact that the Republic of Croatia has built consensus on its integration into the European Union.