Social Democrats in the European Parliament entirely support Croatia's aspiration to start negotiations on its EU membership as soon as possible, Swoboda, who is also the rapporteur for Croatia in the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, told reporters.
Please try to launch negotiations with Croatia because it is important for the region, because Croatia has made an enormous economic and political transformation process, this is our message to the EU member states, Swoboda said.
Sanader thanked Swoboda for understanding the situation Croatia was in and for acknowledging its efforts.
The meeting between Sanader and Swoboda took place ahead of a visit by the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Carla del Ponte, who is expected to assess the implementation of the Croatian Government's Action Plan for locating war crimes fugitive Ante Gotovina and thus either greenlight or stop the start of negotiations.
We hope that del Ponte would positively assess Croatia's cooperation with the Hague tribunal, at least to the extent that it be the foundation for the start of negotiations on 3 October, Swoboda said.
Croatia conducted very intensive preparations in past years and the start of negotiations with Croatia will give a new encouragement for the implementation of reforms and hope to the countries in the region that they too will be given an opportunity to join the EU in time.
Swoboda said that apart from general support, he also supported Croatia emotionally as an Austrian who wanted to see the neighbouring country join the European club as soon as possible.
The general assessment is that Austria is strongly lobbying for the start of negotiations with Croatia because at all meetings it has insisted that it is inappropriate to open negotiations with Turkey and leave Croatia in the waiting room.
Del Ponte is expected to repeat her assessment of Croatia's cooperation with the UN court on Monday at a meeting of the EU Task Force for Croatia, which is comprised of representatives of Great Britain, Luxembourg, Austria and Finland, EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana and Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn.
"I expect us to meet again after Croatia is already in the negotiations," Sanader told Swoboda.
Commenting on his today's meeting with del Ponte, Sanader said the meeting was important for the overall assessment of Zagreb's cooperation with The Hague and that he and President Stjepan Mesic would tell del Ponte that Croatia was a law-based state above all and that nobody must be above the law, including General Gotovina.
Swoboda arrived in Zagreb at the invitation of the president of the Croatian Social Democrats (SDP), Ivica Racan, with whom he is scheduled to meet later today.