Croatia is making very good progress towards EU membership, the screening process has been completed, negotiating chapters are being opened and I believe that in many aspects Croatia is already prepared for EU membership, said Lipponen, whose country is the current EU president.
We are looking forward to Croatia's future membership of the EU because the populations of our two countries are of a similar size and we will share many common interests regardless of the geographical distance, the Finnish parliament speaker said.
Lipponen expressed conviction that by 2008, the EU would solve the problem of the European constitution, which has not been ratified by the Netherlands and France, and thus enable its future enlargement. He said the Finnish Parliament would ratify the European Constitution in six weeks.
Croatian Parliament Speaker Seks expressed satisfaction with the support he received in Helsinki for the continuation of Croatia's integration with the EU, notably because this was the opinion of all parliamentary parties in Finland whose representatives attended his meeting with Lipponen.
The two parliament speakers talked about a tender of the Finnish Patria company which is competing together with Austria's Steyer for the supply of 126 armoured transporters for the Croatian army. "Finland wants to see its armoured transporters become part of Croatia's defence system. However, this issue is in the domain of our two governments and I am convinced that the best bid will win," Seks said.
Seks and Lipponen also talked about the development of bilateral relations and the situation in Southeast Europe. Seks said Croatia and Finland would intensify cooperation between their parliamentary committees and Lipponen said Croatia was the leader in the strengthening of cooperation in the region.
Later today, Seks will hold talks with Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen and members of the Finnish Parliament's Grand Committee, the body in charge of EU issues.
The Finnish parliament (Eduskunta), founded in 1906, is the oldest modern parliament in Europe.