Parliament to welcome Croatian "observer" members

On 17 April in Strasbourg, the European Parliament will welcome 12 "observer" members from Croatia, appointed by the Croatian parliament, to prepare for Croatia's EU accession, currently expected in 2013.

The 12 observers will be able to take part in meetings of committees and political groups and to take the floor, in accordance with Parliament's rules of procedure, but they will not have the right to vote or to stand for election to positions within the European Parliament.

Croatia will have 12 fully-fledged MEPs once all 27 Member States have ratified its EU accession treaty (the European Parliament has already done so).

Croatian observers, as always in these cases, will not receive any salary or administrative allowances from the European Parliament, with the exception of the daily attendance benefit and reimbursement of travel costs, based on the costs actually occurred.

Here is the list of observers and the political groups that they are likely to join (where known).

Name	National party	Political group
Ms   ANTIČEVIĆ MARINOVIĆ Ingrid	SDP	S&D
Ms   BORZAN Biljana	SDP	S&D
Mr    BOŽINOVIĆ Davor	HDZ	EPP
Mr    GRUBIŠIĆ Boro	HDSSB
Ms   JERKOVIĆ Romana	SDP	S&D
Mr    MATUŠIĆ Frano	HDZ	EPP
Mr    PICULA Tonino	SDP	S&D
Mr    PLENKOVIĆ Andrej	HDZ	EPP
Mr    PUPOVAC Milorad	SDSS
Mr    RADOŠ Jozo	HNS	ALDE
Ms   VRBAT Tanja	SDP	S&D
Mr    VULJANIĆ Nikola	HL