The spokesman for the HDZ BiH was quoted by Thursday's issue of the Oslobodjenje daily as saying that Croatian HDZ members had been lobbying for the eviction of the HDZ BiH from the EPP.
Thanks to the EPP members from Germany, this was not accepted and a compromise was reached by freezing the HDZ BiH's observer status, spokesman Miso Relota told the Sarajevo-based daily commenting on the recent decision of the EPP Political Bureau.
The decision, made at a meeting of the EPP Political Bureau in Brussels on Tuesday evening, came after the HDZ BiH ignored demands by the EPP that Dragan Covic should resign as HDZ BiH leader.
Covic is standing trial in Sarajevo for white-collar crime. In addition, his main rival at the last year's party elections, Bozo Ljubic, has claimed that Covic doctored election results to be elected party president.
The party's observer status is suspended until the end of the trial against Covic.
The EPP Political Bureau has also envisaged a possibility for the party's observer status to be reactivated if Covic resigns.
The party's secretary in charge of international organisations, Anton Rill, took part in the EPP session in Brussel.
He told the press that in his comment on the situation in the HDZ BiH, EPP President Wilfried Martens said that he had held "long consultations with Sanader" on the matter.