Zagreb - France will be the first country to ratify Croatia's Treaty of Accession with the European Union in 2013 and the debate and voting are on the agenda of the National Assembly on Thursday.
The debate and ratification in the French parliament will be attended by Croatian Parliament Speaker Josip Leko who, during his two-day visit to Paris on Wednesday and Thursday, will also meet French National Assembly Speaker Claude Bartolone and Senate President Jean-Pierre Bel. Leko is also scheduled to hold talks with the head of the Croatian-French Friendship Group Patrick Bloch.
France will be the 21st country to ratify Croatia's Accession Treaty. This will also be the last time for the French parliament to make a decision on a country's EU accession by a simple majority as amendments to the constitution from 2008 envisage that future EU enlargements must be decided whether in a referendum or in parliament by a qualified majority.
After France, Croatia's treaty is yet to be ratifies by Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Germany and Slovenia.
The ratification procedure has already been launched in all of these countries but Slovenia where, apart from the Ljubljanska Bank issue the solving of which Slovenia made a condition for the ratification, a political crisis broke out.
The deadline for ratifying Croatia's EU Accession Treaty is 1 July.
The European Commission is scheduled to submit its final monitoring report in March. Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands are waiting for this report before they ratify the treaty.