The timing of the visit to Zagreb is very good, because in a month and a half Finland will begin chairing the EU. The EU must honour its obligations and Croatia will become a member as soon as it meets all the requirements, Vanhanen told the press after meeting Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader.
When Croatia will be admitted depends exclusively on the country itself and Croatia will become a full member in accordance with its own achievements, the Finnish premier added.
He agreed with Sanader that Finnish-Croatian relations were excellent but that the economic cooperation had to be improved.
Sanader told the news conference that the process of Croatia's integration with the EU, particularly during the Finnish EU presidency, was the main topic of the Zagreb talks.
"We expect most reports on negotiation chapters to be completed during the Finnish EU presidency and I expect those six months to be very dynamic," Sanader added.
Sanader said that arrangements regarding the new structure of the CEFTA (Central European Free Trade Agreement) were expected to be completed by this autumn or the end of the year at the latest and voiced hope that during Finland's EU chairmanship, Bucharest would host a CEFTA summit.
Asked by a Finnish journalist about the biggest hurdle Croatia was facing in its efforts to join the EU, Sanader recalled that Croatia's model of negotiations was different from previous models because of benchmarks which Croatia was expected to meet.
Asked whether the ongoing negotiations had come to a halt, Sanader said that one could have expected a faster process of compilation of reports.
Nevertheless, everything can be compensated during the Finnish presidency, Sanader added.
Asked by reporters to comment on the latest EC reports on Romania and Bulgaria, which heralded a possible delay of their entry, Sanader expressed hope that there would be no stagnation in the planned process of EU expansion.
"I want this primarily for the sake of Bulgaria and Romania, but also for the sake of Croatia, as problems surrounding those two countries could affect Croatia's integration with the EU," the PM said.
During his official visit to Croatia, Vanhanen was also received for talks by President Stjepan Mesic.