Croatia made good progress in European Union accession negotiations at an intergovernmental conference hosted by the Swedish presidency of the EU on October 2 2009.
 
"Croatia is now making progress towards the final stage of the accession process," the Swedish EU presidency said.
 
At the conference, held in Brussels, six chapters were opened and five closed.
 
The chapters opened were Chapter 4 (free movement of capital), chapter 11 (agriculture and rural protection), chapter 12 (food safety, veterinary and phytosanitary policy, chapter 16 (taxation), chapter 22 (regional policy and co-ordination of structural instruments) and chapter 24 (justice, freedom and security).
 
The chapters closed were Chapter 2 (freedom of movement for workers), chapter 6 (company law), chapter 18 (statistics), chapter 21 (trans-European networks), chapter 29 (customs union) closed.
 
"We are talking about a significant breakthrough in Croatia’s accession negotiations, European Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn told a news conference. "We achieved success on some complex and sensitive chapters."
 
The Swedish EU presidency said that talks on the border issue between Slovenia and Croatia had seen progress toward an agreement, based on international law and good-neighbourly relations.
 
Talks on the border dispute were held with Rehn and Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt in attendance. A final compromise on the dispute will be put to international arbitration under the aegis of the European Commission.
 
The foreign ministers of Croatia and Slovenia were optimistic about the prospects for the talks on the dispute, which previously put Croatia’s EU hopes on hold.
 
On September 11 2009, Croatian prime minister Jadranka Kosor and Slovenia’s prime minister Borut Pahor agreed on a resumption of EU-brokered negotiations, which earlier had produced only a stalemate, prompting a tough line by Brussels to get the two sides back to the negotiating table.
 
EC officials have indicated that, should progress in accession negotiations proceed well, the negotiation process could be completed by summer 2010, making it theoretically possible for Croatia to join the EU in 2011.