A report on Croatia's progress is being prepared by the Foreign Affairs Committee. If I am informed correctly, rapporteur Hannes Swoboda has an ambition to propose that Croatia should become a member in 2009, Poettering said.
Swoboda, a Socialist member of the European Parliament from Austria, presented a draft progress report on Croatia to the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee in late January. Over a hundred amendments have been proposed to the report.
The Foreign Affairs Committee is to put the report to the vote later this month, after which it will be sent to a plenary session of the Parliament for adoption as a resolution, which is a non-binding document. If adopted, it will the first EU document to mention 2009 as a target year for Croatia's admission as a full member of the bloc.
Sanader thanked Poettering for the support, particularly for mentioning the year 2009.
Although we don't want to talk too much about dates, we want to do our homework and it's easier when we have a target, Sanader said.
I think there is a broad consensus in the European Parliament on support for Croatia, he added.
Poettering said that Croatia was making good progress in the accession negotiations, noting that it would be ideal if the European Union completed the constitutional process at the same time as Croatia completed the negotiations.