In his opening address, Sabor Speaker Vladimir Seks said the first session was taking place as Croatia was expecting the formal start of European Union entry negotiations on March 17.
Seks said that in terms of meeting of criteria, Croatia was doing everything to achieve full cooperation with the Hague war crimes tribunal and thus show that all of its efforts were credible.
He said the first session of the Joint Parliamentary Committee was very important for both Croatia and the EU because it marked the start of new relations between the European and Croatian parliaments, as well as between the Union and Croatia.
"We believe that everything we are doing to meet all EU admission criteria will be recognised and awarded with the launching of negotiations in the middle of this month," said Seks.
The Joint Parliamentary Committee was set up following a March 2004 European Parliament decision on the appointment of a special delegation for relations with Croatia and a 15 October 2004 Croatian Parliament decision.
Cooperation between the two sides, which began in 1992, had until now been carried out through the committee on Southeast Europe, whose members visited all countries in the region.
Attending the current two-day session are 12 deputies from the most important political options in the EU, and the European Parliament's rapporteur for Croatia -- Johannes Swoboda of Austria, Georges Santer on behalf of the EU Council of Ministers chairman, and David Daly, who represents the European Commission. Daly is in charge of Croatia's EU entry talks.
Chairing the session are Gordan Jandrokovic, chairman of Croatia's foreign affairs parliamentary committee, and Pal Schmitt of Hungary, representative of the European People's Party (EPP) in the European Parliament.
A joint statement and recommendations, assessing the political and economic situation in Croatia and how Croatia is meeting special political criteria, will be adopted at the end of the session. Apart from cooperation with the Hague tribunal, said criteria include judicial reform, refugee return, protection of minority rights, and media legislation reform.
The European side of the Joint Parliamentary Committee met last week, with most deputies advocating that EU entry talks start on March 17 because Croatia is meeting all criteria, including full cooperation with the UN court, according to diplomatic sources.
Jandrokovic told the press yesterday the Croatian Parliament expected the joint statement to support the start of the entry talks on March 17.