Croatia must make an effort to conclude the accession talks in 2008. This is clearly up to Croatia - if it starts hesitating and if reforms are delayed, the talks will not be concluded, Swoboda said in an interview with the Vienna-based daily Der Standard on Thursday.
In 2009 a new European Parliament will be elected and the old parliament could still vote on the country's admission. However, it takes months to fully formulate a set of complicated admission treaties, so the actual admission will not be possible before 2010 or 2011, Swoboda explained.
The EP official also said that Croatia and Slovenia had to decide on their own ways to settle their border dispute and clarified the term "third party" in the EP resolution on Croatia adopted on Wednesday.
At a plenary session on Wednesday, the EP adopted with a vast majority of votes a resolution on Croatia and an amendment calling on the country to settle outstanding border issues with its neighbours bilaterally, or to seek the services of a third party if that was impossible.
If outstanding border disputes cannot be settled bilaterally with neighbouring countries, the services of a third party should be used, the resolution reads.
Swoboda said that the third party could only be a person whom both sides trusted to make a decision, such as a former politician from a third country, or the International Court of Justice, or the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.
Which option will be chosen was deliberately left for the countries concerned to decide. The only important thing is that they agree in advance that they will accept the ruling, regardless of what it may be, Swoboda added.
He explained that the issue of the Croatian-Slovene land border was practically irrelevant because it concerned only a few square metres, while the problem of the sea border was more complex.