Croatia has provisionally closed the Fisheries policy area in its European Union accession negotiations, thus making a big step towards closing its membership talks with the bloc, which is now a matter of weeks.

We are very satisfied with the outcome of today's conference and I am sure that this was not the last chapter to be closed this month," Croatia's Chief Negotiator Vladimir Drobnjak said adding that the end of the negotiations was now just round the corner.

Today's accession conference was held at the ambassadorial level, bringing together chief negotiators.

"We are also satisfied with the content of the agreement on the Fisheries policy chapter. I think that all of our vital interests at the Adriatic, interests of the Croatian fisheries sector and fishermen are fully protected," he said.

I believe once Croatia joins the EU, we will be able to protect even better our national interests including the protection of the Adriatic sea and people living there, he added.

Hungarian Ambassador Peter Gyorkos, whose country is presiding over the EU in the first half of 2011, said that a European Commission official had told today's conference that drafts of the negotiating positions on the remaining four chapters would be forwarded to the Council of the European Union in the coming days.

We carefully listened to what the European Commission representative was saying. He said that the Commission was completing drafts of the negotiating positions on the remaining four policy areas and that they would be forwarded to the Council of the EU in the coming days, he said.

The ambassador added that Hungary would do its best to see to it that Croatia's EU entry talks are closed by the end of its EU presidency if the European Commission's assessment was positive..