Sixth meeting of the Accession Conference at ministerial level with Croatia

The sixth meeting of the Accession Conference with Croatia at ministerial level was held today in Luxembourg, following the start of accession negotiations on 3 October 2005. The European Union delegation was headed by Dimitrij Rupel, Slovenia’s Foreign Minister and current President of the GAERC Council. The Croatian delegation was led by Gordan Jandroković, Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration.

The Accession Conference opened negotiations on two new chapters: Chapter 2 - Freedom of Movement for Workers and Chapter 19 - Social Policy and Employment.

On the basis of Croatia’s negotiating positions for the two chapters, the European Union has closely examined Croatia’s general state of preparedness in the two areas. Taking into account Croatia’s present state of preparations - and on the understanding that Croatia will continue to make progress in alignment with and implementation of the acquis - the EU underlined the main issues regarding the closing benchmarks to be met by Croatia, namely:

Chapter 2 - Freedom of Movement for Workers

• Croatia demonstrates that adequate administrative structures and enforcement capacity will be in place to implement correctly the acquis on freedom of movement for workers, particularly in the field of co-ordination of social security systems, by the time of accession.

The EU and Croatia also considered proposals for transitional arrangements concerning freedom of movement of workers.

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 abolish any discriminatory measures towards EU migrant workers.

Chapter 19 - Social Policy and Employment

• Croatia amends the Labour Act and the Occupational Safety and Health Act in order to align its legislation in the fields of labour law and health and safety at work with the acquis.
• Croatia adopts an anti-discrimination act and a new Gender Equality Act in order to align its legislation in the fields of anti-discrimination and equal opportunities with the acquis.

In both areas, Croatia should demonstrate a satisfactory track record of progress in setting up adequate administrative structures and enforcement capacity. It should also demonstrate that all appropriate administrative structures will be in place in good time to enable it to implement the acquis in these fields correctly by the time of accession.

The European Union will closely monitor Croatia’s progress in these two chapters throughout the negotiations.

Since the start of the accession negotiations, 20 chapters have been opened, of which two have been provisionally closed.