Talking to the press after an international conference on combating terrorism, Mesic said he and Marovic met regularly to exchange opinions.
"It doesn't matter who'll be the first. The important thing is that (European Union member countries) give timely support to the Southeast's European goals so as to prevent the forces from the past from having room to act," said Marovic.
He relativised the recent re-establishment of the government in exile of the Republic of Serb Krajina, a self-style statelet set up by Croatian Serb rebels in the early 1990s.
According to Marovic, the European aspirations cannot be stopped "by various messages from the past that we've had the chance to hear recently about the secret formation of some government for the Serb Krajina. Those are defeated stories".
Marovic voiced hope that he and Mesic would be able to assure their partners at the Madrid conference that the Southeast must hurry to Europe.
"Croatia's ambitions can't harm anyone but help the entire region turn towards European standards," said Mesic.
After Marovic, Mesic met German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and France's Michel Barnier.
Mesic said Croatia did not want Europe to be divided as to the start of Croatia's EU entry talks. He added that March 17, when the talks might be postponed due to the failure to extradite fugitive General Ante Gotovina to the Hague war crimes tribunal, should not be "fetishised".
Fischer and Barnier voiced hope it would be possible to find a solution which would not have a considerably negative effect on Croatia's road to the EU.