Croatian leaders, including president Stjepan Mesic and foreign minister Gordan Jandrokovic, are insisting that the country will be ready in 2009 to join the European Union in spite of the institutional crisis in the wake of Irish rejection of the Lisbon Treaty.

This emerges from interviews in recent days, including statements by Mesic to French daily Le Figaro published on July 15 and by Jandrokovic to Financial Times Deutschland on July 11.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU, has said that no further accession could take place until the institutional crisis is resolved. German chancellor Angela Merkel has expressed a similar view.

Pessimistic views have been expressed about the effect of the Lisbon Treaty problem on Croatia's hopes of progressing towards EU membership.

Croatian daily Javno quoted Slovenian foreign minister Dmitrij Rupel as having said on July 13 that Croatia could open all chapters by autumn 2009, but he is not sure that all of them can be closed.

"I think that it is possible to open all chapters, but I do not know whether they can be closed. We will have to work intensively in order to carry out negotiations. Croatia has 20 open chapters, by the end of July they will open some more, and maybe some more this year," Rupel said.

There would probably be no problem in opening chapters "but as regards closing the chapters probably there will be, as they concern complicated issues," he said.

According to a report by the EUObserver, Mesic told Le Figaro: "I understand European countries, including France, which intend to solve the EU's institutional problems before proceeding to any new accessions … (but) we will speed up the rhythm of our reforms and be ready in 2009 to join the EU as its 28th member".

Asked if he could imagine his country joining the EU without the bloc having dealt with the Irish rejection of the Lisbon Treaty, Mesic said: "No, the EU will find a way out of this crisis. If 26 EU states ratify Lisbon (Treaty)… they will find a solution for the 27th … The European institutional crisis will be solved".

"We intend to close all negotiations chapters before the end of 2009. Our efforts will be rewarded," Mesic said.

Accession talks were launched with Croatia in 2005, and the country is hoping to become full EU member by 2011 at the latest.

Javno quoted former Croatian foreign minister Miomir Zuzul as saying that the focus of Sarkozy's policies was not Croatia, but the Lisbon Treaty, and in that context, Croatia had appeared as a "collateral victim".

Croatia's foreign ministry confirmed that during foreign minister Jandrokovic's stay in Paris, a number of talks were held with European officials. According to the foreign ministry, these officials said that an institutional framework would be found for the acceptance of Croatia, if it fulfilled the conditions for entering the EU.

Jandrokovic told the Financial Times Deutschland that Croatia wanted to open EU accession negotiations in all areas this year, and said that Zagreb had received "very positive signals".

"Our goal is to finalise negotiations in autumn 2009," Jandrokovic said.