EU seeks concrete results in Croatia's judicial reform

(ZAGREB) - The European Union expects Croatia to show concrete results in judicial reform and fighting corruption in a key step for joining the bloc, European Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said Friday.

"Croatia now needs to speed up reforms. Not only on paper. I want to see concrete results," Reding said, stressing that the priority was the fight against organised crime and corruption.

In June Croatia, which hopes to become an EU member by 2012, opened the last three out of 35 chapters that every country must negotiate before joining the bloc.

The three are related to competition, the judiciary and fundamental rights, as well as foreign and defence policy.

Reding, on a visit to Croatia, was addressing an international conference on the functioning of the judiciary with relation to membership in the EU.

She said that the chapter on the judiciary and fundamental rights was "one of the most delicate and one of the most important."

"We need to have a comprehensive and convincing overall picture of results achieved under this chapter," she said, adding that Brussels will closely monitor progress in implementation of reforms, not just passing the laws.

A backlog of some 800,000 judicial cases, although cut by half since 2005, needs to be solved in the "near future," she said, warning that some 100,000 cases were older than three years.

"I believe that we will eventually complete all conditions to conclude the chapter (on judiciary) ... with flying colors, due to ourselves," Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor said.

"The results of the fight against corruption will eventually boost the economy and Croatia will be more attractive for investors," a statement quoted Kosor as saying after meeting Reding.

She also stressed the government's determination to conclude EU talks by the end of year or in early 2011.

However, Reding stressed there would be no "deadlines, no time frames," for EU membership.

"We will judge when the country is ready on the basis of facts," Reding told journalists.

Apart from judicial reform and the fight against corruption the EU is also closely monitoring the return of refugees from the 1991-1995 Balkans war and respect of minorities, she said.

During the past few months Croatia stepped up its corruption fight, notably at a high level, and arrested more than a dozen officials from state-run companies.

On Thursday the national anti-graft bureau charged former deputy prime minister Damir Polancec with abuse of power, the country's highest ranking official to be suspected of corruption.

Polancec was indicted over his ties to a top food company that reported losses of more than 50 million euros (69 million dollars).

Of the six former Yugoslav republics -- Bosnia-Hercegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia -- only the last is an EU member.