The European Council – comprising the Heads of State and Government of the 25 Member States – decided unanimously in December 2004 to open accession negotiations with Croatia in 2005, provided it was cooperating fully with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, notably in the search for war crimes indictee Ante Gotovina. This condition was judged to be met on 3 October 2005, and the EU has honoured its commitment accordingly.

The EU commitment to an EU membership perspective for all the countries of the Western Balkans was made at the Thessaloniki summit in June 2003, and Croatia is the first of these countries to reach a state of preparations allowing the opening of accession negotiations. It is in the strategic interest of the EU to have stable, democratic and increasingly prosperous neighbours in the Western Balkans. The accession negotiations are an important step in this direction, both for Croatia and the EU, and constitute a signal of encouragement to the other countries in the region.

The answer depends largely on Croatia itself, and on the speed at which it meets the EU's conditions for membership. Like every candidate, it will have to demonstrate that it meets the conditions for membership. But as for every candidate, the EU negotiations will be fair and rigorous.

Immediately after the formal opening of negotiations, the European Commission launched the first stage of this process, the so-called screening which involves explaining all the EU rules and regulations which Croatia will need to adopt and examining Croatia' legislation to see how far it conforms with the EU rules. Croatia’s administrative capacity to enforce these rules is also taken into account. For the purposes of the accession negotiations, the EU rules are broken down into 35 ‘chapters’. This initial stage of the negotiations was completed in October 2006.

Once the screening of each individual chapter is completed, the Commission presents a report to the Council including a recommendation whether to open negotiations 'proper' on this chapter. This recommendation can take two forms. The Commission can conclude that Croatia is already sufficiently prepared for negotiations to begin, and call on the Council to request that Croatia submits its negotiating position accordingly. Alternatively, the Commission might conclude that before negotiations on the chapter can begin, certain important conditions should be met first, the so-called 'opening benchmarks'.

Meanwhile, Croatia will need to align its legislation with the EU rules or acquis and ensure it is subsequently implemented and can be adequately enforced. Many of these challenges relate to the opening up of the Croatian economy to greater competition and to viewing issues in an increasingly non-discriminatory way. Further progress in political, economic and other reforms will also be necessary. Progress on judicial reform, public administration reform and fighting corruption will be crucial, More needs to be done also on refugee return and ensuring minority rights are fully respected.

By the end of October 2007, negotiations had been opened and provisionally closed in the chapters: "science and research" and "education and culture". Twelve additional chapters have been opened and closing benchmarks been set: "Economic and Monetary Union, Industrial Policy, Customs Union, Intellectual Property Law, Free movement of services, Company Law, Statistics, Financial control, Information society, Financial services, Consumer and Health Protection as well as External Relations".

For a further five chapters, Croatia submitted its negotiating position (Trans-European Networks, Transport, Energy, Free movement of workers, budget) and the relevant draft Common Positions on the EU-side are under preparation. The EU is waiting for the Croatian negotiating position on the chapter taxation.

The Commission has presented all screening reports for Croatia to Council. Ten screening reports (public procurement; competition policy; justice, freedom and security; social policy/employment; free movement of capital; free movement of goods; agriculture; food safety; regional policy; environment) led to opening benchmarks being agreed by Council and communicated to Croatia. These benchmarks need to be met before negotiations on these chapters can begin. Two screening reports without proposed benchmarks (fisheries and Common Foreign and Security Policy) and one screening report with proposed opening benchmarks (Judiciary and fundamental rights) are being discussed by Council.