Croatia: EP Foreign Affairs Committee votes for Croatia's EU accession

The Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament today gave the green light for the plenary of the European Parliament to issue its consent to the accession of Croatia to the EU, scheduled for 1 December. At the request of EPP Group Members Bernd Posselt and Othmar Karas, an amendment was adopted asking EU Member States to do everything possible for the Accession Treaty, which shall be signed on 9 December, to be ratified in time for Croatia to become a full EU member on 1 July 2013.

"The Foreign Affairs Committee is sending a clear signal. Croatia has done its homework. This Central European country is ready for the European Union and the European Union is ready for Croatia", said Bernd Posselt, Shadow Rapporteur for the EPP Group for the Croatian accession process and Spokesman for Foreign Affairs of the EPP Group CSU Delegation in the European Parliament.

Mr Posselt recalled that almost exactly 20 years ago, on 18 November 1991, the eastern Croatian baroque town Vukovar, a prosperous part of Europe, home to many nationalities, was destroyed by Yugoslav-Serb forces, in a war which cost hundreds of thousands of people to lose their lives or homes. Mr Posselt, who has been working for 18 years in the European Parliament on Croatia's accession to the EU, said: "It is a great sign to set the course for Croatia to join the EU, comprising the region of Vukovar, on this anniversary."

Croatia has not only made outstanding reform efforts to meet all criteria for EU accession, but has also overcome the barriers that have been piled up in front of this European country. Now the EU must keep its promises. "With its exemplary minority policy and its established democracy, Croatia will contribute significantly to the stabilisation of the entire region. Its accession is therefore in the interest of the EU," Mr Posselt conculded.