"The commission has decided to ask the Government to explain in a report in which capacity the premier travelled (to Verona), because first we have to establish whether it was an official trip or not," Leko told a news conference in Zagreb.
Asked whether the commission would ask the Government to submit proof that the prime minister had paid for his accommodation in a Verona hotel, Leko answered that he could not speculate about further steps to be made by the commission and that all depended on the Government's report.
Sanader's visit to Verona, where he attended an opera performance, has triggered a public debate due to the fact that the Croatian public was not informed of this trip in advance, although top officials usually inform in advance about their schedules and officials trips abroad and due to suspicions that on that occasion the premier may have been involved in talks in which some parties reportedly lobbied for the U.S. company Barr Pharmaceutical in a race for the acquisition of the Croatian leading pharmaceutical company Pliva.