Sixth meeting of the Accession Conference with Croatia
Summary: 25 July 2008, Brussels - The sixth meeting of the Accession Conference with Croatia at Deputy level was held today in Brussels, following the start of negotiations on 3 October 2005. The Conference opened negotiations on Chapter 1 - Free Movement of Goods and provisionally closed Chapter 20 - Enterprise and Industrial Policy.
Chapter 1 - Free Movement of Goods
On the basis of the negotiating position of Croatia for this chapter, the Union has closely examined Croatia's general state of preparedness in this area. Taking into account Croatia's present state of preparations - and on the understanding that Croatia will continue to make progress in the alignment with and implementation of the acquis - the EU underlined the main issues regarding the closing benchmarks to be met by Croatia, namely:
- Croatia adopts legislation transposing Directive 2001/83/EC on the community code relating to medicinal products for human use as well as adopts and puts into force Directive 89/105/EC relating to the pricing and reimbursement of pharmaceutical products, in line with the principles of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice.
- Croatia continues to make progress towards alignment of horizontal legislation with the acquis and demonstrates good progress towards transposition of the New and Old Approach Product acquis.
- Croatia makes significant progress towards completing the internal screening of domestic legislation and administrative practices with Articles 28-30 EC, the introduction of mutual recognition clauses, and the necessary subsequent amendments.
- Croatia demonstrates that it has the adequate administrative capacity to properly implement and enforce the legislation in all horizontal areas affecting the free movement of goods.
The EU and Croatia also considered proposals for transitional arrangements concerning certain elements of the community code relating to medicinal products for human use.
Furthermore the European Union underlined that it would devote particular attention to monitoring all specific issues mentioned in its common position, with a view to ensuring Croatia's administrative capacity and its capacity to complete legal alignment in all the areas under this chapter. The Union will closely monitor Croatia's progress in this chapter throughout the negotiations.
Chapter 20 - Enterprise and Industrial Policy
The negotiations on Chapter 20 - Enterprise and Industrial Policy were opened on 21 December 2006 at the Accession Conference at Deputy level. At this Conference the EU noted that, in order for the chapter to be provisionally closed, Croatia would have to provide the European Commission with a comprehensive industrial policy strategy, with particular emphasis on the restructuring of key loss-making sectors, such as steel and shipbuilding.
On the basis of the information provided by Croatia and the considerable progress made with preparations in all areas under this chapter, the EU noted that, at this stage, this chapter does not require further negotiations.
The European Union also underlined that it would devote particular attention to monitoring all specific issues mentioned in this chapter with a view to ensuring Croatia's administrative capacity to implement an effective enterprise and industrial policy as well as the contribution of an effective enterprise and industrial policy, to enhancing Croatia's capacity to cope with competitive pressure and market forces within the Union. Particular consideration needs to be given to the links between
the present chapter and other negotiation chapters, such as Competition policy (in particular state aid)
The Union will, if necessary, return to this chapter at an appropriate moment.
Since the start of the negotiations, twenty one chapters have been opened, of which three have been provisionally closed. Further Accession Conferences are planned before the end of the year in order to take the process forward.
- Ref: CL08-107EN
- EU source: Council
- UN forum:
- Date: 25/7/2008
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