"It would be a tragedy if the negotiations didn't start by the end of the year. That would mean going back to the scenario which not even the Euro-sceptics could look forward to, because nobody wants Croatia to remain in a package with the rest of the Balkans," Racan told the press in Ivanic Grad, which he visited at the invitation of the SDP county branch.
Asked if this meant the SDP would ask for early parliamentary elections, Racan answered in the affirmative, voicing hope, however, that it would not come to that.
The press asked for a comment of Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn's statement that the European Union had not changed its position with regard to Croatia's cooperation with the Hague war crimes tribunal. Asselborn is the head of an EU task force evaluating Croatia's cooperation with the UN court.
Racan said Asselborn's statement showed that Croatian authorities were still not completely credible.
He said it was a fact that the police and the secret services had investigated those who had proved efficient in cooperation with the Hague tribunal instead of investigating those who sabotaged it.
Racan also objected to notions of organising Croatia into regions.