He met with the president of the Dutch lower house, Gerdi Verbeet, on the margins of a two-day conference and their talks focused on Croatia's progress in compliance with criteria in the policy chapter 23 - "Judiciary and Fundamental Rights".
The Netherlands is closely following what Croatia is doing and is satisfied, as Verbeet said, with the information it receives from the European Commission, Leko said, adding that the Dutch expected a positive monitoring report and that their lower house could make a decision approving Croatia's EU Accession Treaty in June. The treaty is expected to be ratified by the Dutch parliament's upper house soon after that as well.
Leko informed Verbeet that Croatia was committed to standardising the commitments from Chapter 23, and about the meeting of the judicial independence standard, notably through the Judicial Appointment Council.
The most important thing is that cases older than three years are being processed and that as early as next year, the Croatian judiciary will reach the norm of reasonably long trials, of up to three years, said Leko, adding that representatives of the Dutch parliament's European integration committee were expected to visit Croatia in June.
Leko also met with the president of the Italian lower house, Gianfranco Fini, who said he would encourage his European colleagues to ratify Croatia's Accession Treaty as soon as possible.
Leko also held informal talks with Montenegrin Parliament Speaker Ranko Krivokapic, who highlighted the EU's importance and value for the countries in the region and voiced hope that the EU would not disappoint them if they met all the association criteria.
Leko said Croatia's position was that all those who met the accession criteria should join the EU.
He and a Croatian delegation also visited a tourism fair in Warsaw which Croatia was attending, saying that more Poles were expected this year than in 2011, when about half a million vacationed in Croatia.