Croatia to join EU in 2013

The European Commission today proposed that Croatia should become the 28th member state of the EU on January 1, 2013.

The news was given by the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso this morning in Brussels.

Calling today as "a historic day for Croatia and for the European Union", Mr Barroso said that the European Commission has just proposed to the EU Council of Ministers to close the last four chapters in the accession negotiations with Croatia paving the way for the country to join the EU as the 28th member state as of 1 July 2013.

This proposal is now expected to be endorsed by the 27 EU leaders during a summit in Brussels in two weeks time.

Croatia applied for EU membership in 2003 and has a population of 4.5 million.

It will be the second country from the former republic of Yugoslavia to join the EU following Slovenia, which joined together with Malta in 2004.