An increase in criminal gang violence and killings has done little to delay Croatia's accession to the European Union, raising fears that another Eastern European country will be admitted before it brings organised crime under control.

The country was told yesterday that it was still on track for membership and was given a timetable to complete the entry process by the end of next year, with another year for ratification by the 27 EU states. The news came despite an annual review into EU hopefuls stating that corruption and organised crime were still widespread in Croatia.

The rush to embrace Croatia is causing alarm that the EU will repeat the mistakes it made over Bulgaria and Romania, both of which were allowed in last year despite the continued influence of organised crime that is now holding up millions of euros in development aid.

It is even possible that key parts of the Lisbon Treaty could be woven into the country's accession agreement if the Irish people again vote “no” to the document in a referendum next year.

Olli Rehn, the Enlargement Commissioner, denied that the EU was offering Croatia a “blank cheque”. “The ball is in Croatia's court,” he said. “The conditional road map for Croatia should be seen as an encouragement for the country to press on with reforms. Success depends on Croatia's ability to meet the conditions for EU accession.”

The section of the report on Croatia's anti-corruption policy, however, made grim reading. “Corruption still remains widespread. The administrative capacity of state bodies for fighting corruption continues to be insufficient,” it said.

“The police need to become more effective in the fight against corruption and organised crime. Implementation of anti-corruption efforts has continued to lack co-ordination and monitoring. While the total number of corruption cases investigated so far has increased, the actual number of prosecutions remains low.”

In general the review was positive towards the Balkan countries; for the first time it suggested that Serbia could open its formal application process next year after the arrest of Radovan Karadzic. It was critical of Turkey, another country with ambitions of joining the EU, and urged it to get back on the road to reform.

Turkey started EU entry talks in 2005 — as did Croatia — but they have stalled over its refusal to normalise relations with Cyprus and the internal turmoil that led to the ruling party being taken to court for alleged unconstitutional behaviour.

Mr Rehn said: “Turkey has faced an annual political or constitutional crisis [over the last few years] which has consumed a lot of energy and caused stagnation in the essential reforms that are needed to make progress in the EU accession negotiation. The road to EU membership goes not through excuses but concrete steps.”

Ali Babacan, Turkey's Foreign Minister, said he thought that some of the EU criticisms were unfair but would issue a detailed reaction next week.

The EU enlargement review said that the other candidates — Albania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Bosnia, Montenegro and Kosovo — were making limited progress on the reforms that they needed to make.

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