The EU now needs to consider the reasons which led to the negative outcome of the referendums on the EU Constitution in France and the Netherlands, and accession talks with Croatia can be conducted simultaneously because they will last two to three years anyway, Sanader said when asked about Croatia's current position in light of French Prime Minister De Villepin's statement that the EU enlargement process should be slowed down after Romania and Bulgaria's accession.
The most important decisions for Croatia were made in June and December last year - decisions on candidate status and the start of accession talks, which was postponed because of one unresolved case. "Croatia has nothing to be afraid of when it comes to the EU," the PM said.
Commenting on press reports about his having returned from Brussels sooner than planned, the PM said that before his departure for Brussels he had known that EU enlargement would not be discussed at the ongoing summit and that there was therefore no reason for him to stay there.
He added that a debate about Croatia at a meeting of the European People's Party (EPP) in Meise on Thursday was a big success.
Asked what promises Croatia's delegation would give in Washington where it will hold talks with the IMF, Sanader said there were no promises and called on all to understand that the IMF was not a dictator lecturing Croatia.
The goal of our cooperation with the IMF is two-fold - reducing and stopping the growth of the foreign debt and reducing the budgetary deficit. They have experts with whom Finance Minister Ivan Suker will talk and in that sense nobody will be able to impose anything on Croatia, the PM said.
Croatia has three options as regards cooperation with the IMF - cancellation of the cooperation, the implementation of the existing stand-by arrangement, and the prolongation of that arrangement, and in the autumn we will have to chose one of them, Sanader said at the construction site of a future Museum of Modern Art in Zagreb.
Asked to comment on the Croatian Democratic Union's (HDZ) future in the light of recent events in Osijek, Sanader cited the example of party member Branimir Glavas from Osijek who was expelled from the party, stating that the HDZ would not tolerate autonomy-seeking in Croatia.
He recalled that the HDZ was established on June 17, 1989 and that it was celebrating its 16th anniversary. The HDZ is today definitely the strongest political force in Croatia and will remain so for a long time, he said.