"The parliament will soon amend a provision of the declaration on fundamental principles of accession to the EU which stipulates the holding of the referendum before the signing of the accession treaty in order that the amended provision stipulate the organisation of the referendum after the signing of the accession treaty with the EU," Seks said addressing participants in a Pan-European Union international conference in Split on Saturday.
According to him, time has ripened in the Croatian politics for altering the concerning provision from the declaration, adopted in 2005.
Seks said that Croatia would do its utmost to sign the accession treaty with the EU during Hungary's presidency over the 27-strong European bloc in the first half of 2011 and that this meant that the referendum would be called before parliamentary polls planned for the late 2011.
The Croatian official hopes that an intergovernmental accession conference, set for 5 November, will provisionally close three chapters within Croatia's membership talks with the EU: Free Movement of Capital, Transport Policy and Institutions.
Croatia is planning to close four more chapters by the end of this year: Agriculture and Rural development, Fisheries, Regional Policy and Justice, Freedom and Security.
According to Seks, the pace of closing the negotiating areas on Environment and on Foreign, Security and Defence Policy hinges on the European Union.
Thus, the two most demanding chapters -- Competition Policy and Judiciary and Fundamental Rights -- will be left for the end of the process, he said.
Commenting on difficulties in restructuring Croatian shipyards to meet benchmarks from the Competition Policy chapter No. 8., Seks said that respect should be paid to the rights of workers in those yards and to the rights of their families.
"It is unacceptable to undermine a vital national interest for the sake of the principle of market competition," the Croatian official said when commenting on the ailing shipyards.
Speaking after Seks, the head of the European Commission's Delegation to Croatia, Paul Vandoren said Croatia should no longer subsidize its shipyards, and that this practice should have already ceased as such subsidies harm competitiveness, which is in contravention with the EU rules.
Plans for shipyards' restructuring should be carefully elaborated so that they will be implementable, the EC representative said.
Vandoren also urged Croatia to continue with the relentless anti-corruption campaign.