"I am confident that the adoption of the negotiating framework means progress on Croatia's path towards integration, the final goal being Croatia's full membership in the EU," the Sabor Speaker said in a statement.
Seks thanked parliament speakers from all EU countries that assessed Croatia's efforts as authentic and principled and gave their unconditional support for the start of the entry talks. As for the countries that did not support the start of talks on March 17, Seks expressed his belief that they would soon change their position and at the next meeting in Brussels contribute to the unanimity about Croatia's full readiness to start the talks.
"In that regard, I will continue parliamentary dialogue with those countries," Seks said.
Croatia and its parliament will continue with the same intensity its overall political activities and insist, as has been the case so far, on the implementation of all segments of Euro-integration processes, and continue adjusting its legislation to EU standards and preparing for negotiations with the EU.
Shortly before the adoption of the Council of Ministers' decision, the Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER) failed to achieve a consensus on Croatia's cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Seks said in the statement. "This is an undisputed fact, so yesterday's decision was not unexpected. But I also want to stress that such a decision of the Council of Ministers and the postponement of the talks was not something that Croatia wanted."
"It is a fact that we wanted to start negotiations, but that did not happen and it is nothing tragic and dramatic for Croatia," Seks said, adding that Croatia had rightfully expected the talks to start because it had done its utmost to meet the remaining condition set by the international community.