"I am confident this will happen in the first half of this year," Mesic told Croatian Radio and added his assessment was based on his talks with EU representatives.
"Many in the EU are aware of the efforts Croatia has been making, they are aware that Croatia must be the leader in this part of Europe," the president said.
Asked about his opinion on whether Croatia would meet the last remaining condition, namely arrest General Ante Gotovina, this year, Mesic said this would be very difficult given that institutions searching for the fugitive general claimed that Gotovina was not in Croatia.
Mesic said Croatia must prove to the EU that it is credible and consistent in meeting all conditions.
"We were not fully credible, we failed to process all cases which we said we would. If somebody was hiding the Ahmici group, they must be put on trial, if somebody provided ICTY indictee Ivica Rajic with false identity, they must be processed," Mesic said.
Carla del Ponte says she does not believe Croatia when it comes to the case of general Gotovina given that Croatia was not transparent in several other cases in the past, Mesic said. "Full cooperation with the ICTY does not mean Gotovina's extradition if the general is not in Croatia, it means that Croatia needs to prove that it is capable of processing those who helped him," the president said.
Mesic said del Ponte would then change her report and establish that Croatia entirely cooperated with the Hague tribunal.
"This can happen soon, it could last for a few months, but it depends on us," Mesic stressed, expressing conviction that Croatia would not join the EU in the package with other former Yugoslav countries, such as Macedonia, but that it would enter the Union on its own.
Mesic said that Croatian intelligence services did not lead an operation aimed at obstructing the work of ICTY investigators in their search for Gotovina, but said there were some illogical elements in the work of intelligence services.