Addressing a CSU congress in Munich on Friday, Sanader also thanked the German Social Democrats, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and European Commissioner Guenther Verheugen.
In his address to the meeting, the PM congratulated the CSU on winning elections in Bavaria for the past 50 years.
Announcing Sanader as a guest speaker, the vice-president of the European Parliament and the CSU, Ingo Friedrich, called the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) a party promoting relations in south-east Europe and Sanader a symbol of the policy of reconciliation in the region.
On the margins of the congress, Sanader met the president of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and leader of the Christian Democratic opposition in the Bundestag, Angela Merkel, and informed her of Croatia's prospects on the road to the EU as well as the government's expectation that Croatia-EU entry talks would start early next year.
Merkel expressed her full support to Croatia's EU bid and hope that it would be admitted as soon as possible.
In her speech at the CSU congress, at which she and Sanader were the most prominent guest speakers, Merkel called Sanader a symbol of future EU members.
The speech at the CSU congress marked the end of Sanader's three-day visit to Germany during which the PM met, among others, Chancellor Schroeder and Bavarian PM Stoiber.