In any case, we want Croatia as an EU member before the next elections for the European Parliament, which are due to take place in June 2009, Martens said after a meeting and a working lunch with Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader in the Finnish capital.
The EPP, the umbrella organisation of European Christian Democratic parties, was holding a summit in Helsinki's Kaemp Hotel on Thursday evening, with eight EU prime ministers attending.
Martens expressed his satisfaction with the talks with Sanader, saying that US support for Croatia's aspirations to NATO and EU membership would strengthen the EPP's conviction and efforts that Croatia should be admitted to EU membership by 2009.
Sanader said he was meeting European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and the EU prime minister attending the EPP summit in the evening, and added: "It has always turned out that whatever conclusions the EPP has made about Croatia they have become a reality."