On the other hand, EU member-states can keep restrictions for Croatian citizens regarding the purchase of real estate, and those restrictions will be removed only after Croatia joins the EU. As of 1 February 2009, Croatia will have to apply EU legislation without exception, Jandrokovic said.
The SAA negotiations were conducted poorly, the agreement was signed hastily and it is harmful for Croatia, Jandrokovic said, adding that the former prime minister signed the SAA to score political points in the 2001 local elections. The SAA was initialled in May 2001 by former Foreign Minister Tonino Picula and it was negotiated by the former chief negotiator, Neven Mimica, he added.
Croatia could have won more favourable conditions had the negotiations lasted longer. Deadlines for the acquisition of real estate in Croatia by foreign nationals have already been established and it is still not certain if Croatia will become a full member of the EU in 2009, Jandrokovic said.
Croatian negotiators will try to repair the damage done, but it is not certain if they will succeed, he added.
Asked what kind of parliamentary majority was necessary for the ratification of an agreement on compensation to Austrian citizens who fled Croatia in the wake of World War II, Jandrokovic said the ratification of the agreement required a two-thirds majority and that constitutional law experts had been consulted on the matter.
The former Prime Minister and leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Ivica Racan, dismissed as imputations claims that the SAA had been poorly negotiated.
"The HDZ continues to behave like an ink-fish leaking ink when it cannot solve problems, like the agreement with Austria," Racan told reporters in the parliament.
Racan called on Prime Minister and HDZ leader Ivo Sanader to say clearly if by raising the issue of the SAA his party and government were making a turnaround in relations towards the EU and taking the same position on the EU which they had five years ago.
No country can join the EU if it does not accept the principle that there can be no discrimination regarding the acquisition of property. The SAA includes exceptions regarding the open real estate market - it does not apply to real estate on farmland or protected land, as well as real estate in which the public interest is so great that it cannot be sold, Racan said.
Negotiations on Croatia's EU entry are under way and there is still time for negotiating some exceptions and postponements, Racan said.
Commenting on Jandrokovic's statement that the ratification of the agreement with Austria required a two-thirds majority, Racan said that legal and constitutional experts considered a simple majority sufficient.
"I can understand why the HDZ resorts to interpretation of the Constitution, because the fact that the agreement cannot win two-thirds majority support in the parliament is only an alibi for Sanader's not being able to implement the agreement."