The Croatian parliament ratified, on 9 March, the country’s Treaty of Accession to the European Union that will enter into force in July 2013, a procedure that the 27 will also have to carry out by the same date. All 136 MPs present, of a total of 151, voted for ratification of the treaty, a document signed in December 2011 in Brussels after six years of negotiations between the government and the EU.

“This is an important moment. We have achieved our objective and now have an important means of improving [citizens’] quality of life and enhancing their security,” said Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic, addressing parliament ahead of the vote.

Croatia’s membership of the EU was approved in a referendum in January by 66% of the country’s voters.

Ahead of accession, the treaty will also have to be ratified by the 27 EU member states. Five countries have already done so, namely Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Italy and Malta.

After Slovenia in 2004, Croatia will be the second of the six former Yugoslav republics to join the EU, a prospect open to all the Western Balkan states.