Croatia and Macedonia: more progress needed, says EU

Accession countries Croatia and Macedonia have been told that “much further” progress is needed before they can be considered ready to join the EU.

That was the message of a key report which was overwhelmingly adopted by parliament's foreign affairs committee on Wednesday.

Croatia hopes to join the EU by 2010 and Macedonia at a later date.

A report by Austrian Socialist deputy Hannes Swoboda said that Croatia was well on the road to possible membership but that further progress was still required.

His report was adopted by 52 votes in favour and none against.

Another report on Macedonia, which has yet to start formal accession talks, by Dutch GUE member Erik Meijer was endorsed by 56 votes in favour with five against. Both will now go to next month's plenary in Strasbourg.

Committee member Andrew Duff, an ALDE deputy from the UK, said, “The report is fairly constructive but still makes some criticism of both.

“We are not trying to block their bids. What parliament is doing is gently pressing both Croatia and Macedonia to address its concerns.”

He said current reservations about the two countries' membership ambitions include “poor assimilation” of the community acqui, concern about corruption and the “inability of their governments to absorb the responsibilities that go with EU membership”.

Another committee member, German deputy Bernd Posselt, said, “Croatia is quite advanced on the road to it joining the EU but there are a lot of problems which still need to be resolved.

“Parliament wants a decision made on this issue before next year's European elections to allow the ratification process in member states to proceed,” added Posselt, shadow rapporteur on Croatian accession for the EPP-ED group.

His comments were partly echoed by Polish centre-right MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, the committee chairman, who said, “Both countries have made progress but there are still some shortcomings which need to be addressed.”

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