Croatia's path towards membership of the European Union took a leap forward today, Tuesday 26th June, with the opening of six new areas of entry negotiations. "Croatia is well on the way to joining us in the EU," said the German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who chaired the talks. Zagreb expanded its accession talks to the right to provide services, company law, financial services, information society and media, statistics and financial control. "These six chapters are a breakthrough and I trust that we can continue with this speed in the future," EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn told a news conference.

Croatia has already opened six other chapters in the negotiations and hopes to be negotiating on 20 policy areas by the end of this year out of the 35 in which EU law is divided, racing ahead of fellow candidate Turkey, which began talks at the same time. It aims to have fulfilled all conditions for accession in 2009, Foreign Minister Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic said on Tuesday.

The former Yugoslav republic was allowed to start talks in October 2005 after it finally cooperated with the U.N. war crimes tribunal, leading to the arrest of indicted ex-general Ante Gotovina. EU officials say it is now advancing fast towards becoming the 28th member, and this weekend's agreement to reform the bloc's institutions opened the way for further enlargement from 2009.