"Our aim is to achieve the best possible results in the negotiations, which means that the political affiliation of a team member will have no importance," Sanader told reporters in Brussels following the decision by the European Council to open entry talks with Croatia on March 17, 2005.
"The negotiators must be experts, they must know English and must know how to negotiate," said the prime minister, allowing for a possibility that experts who do not know English will be allowed to be on a negotiating team, but will not be allowed to be team leaders.
"Consultations are starting as of today on principles and the composition of negotiating teams, and I want to include all parliamentary parties in them," he said.
Sanader said he used his visit to Brussels to arrange a meeting with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn for "the first half of January". He added that he had met the future European Council Chairman, Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker of Luxembourg, to discuss "concrete steps that we will take during Luxembourg's presidency of the EU".
Sanader said that Croatia wanted to complete the negotiations "in the course of 2007" and that it was up to the EU to decide on a date of accession.
Asked to comment on conclusions on negotiating frameworks, which show that accession talks would be more difficult in the future than they had been so far, because more attention would be paid to the implementation of the assumed commitments, Sanader said that a negotiating framework would be drawn up for each country separately.
"There are no new elements for us other than suspension clauses, of which we already knew," Sanader said.
The European Council confirmed the introduction of suspensive clauses allowing the EU to suspend negotiations with a country in the event of serious and lasting violations of the principles of freedom, democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law, on which the EU is based.