He was addressing an Institute for International Relations forum called "Croatia in the Programme of Austria's Presidency of the EU", which pooled numerous members of the diplomatic corps accredited in Croatia.
Sajdik said the Western Balkans had been the focus of Austria's presidency since the beginning, and that Vienna believed it was time to review the Thessaloniki agenda because it had yielded some positive results. He added the region would be one of the main topics of a forthcoming informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Salzburg.
Adopted in June 2003, the Thessaloniki Agenda is a document in which the EU officially confirmed the European prospects of five countries participating in the Stabilisation and Association process -- Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania -- and defined the priority reforms they needed to carry out in drawing closer to EU membership.
Sajdik dismissed the possibility of the joint accession of Western Balkan countries or EU enlargement according to the regatta principle. He underlined that every country in the region had its own European prospects and that it would be evaluated by its own achievements. He also added that drawing closer to the EU was not a race.
Commenting on the European Commission's proposal for the establishment of a regional free trade zone, which elicited stormy reactions among the Croatian public, Sajdik said the Commission did not wish to touch on sensitive issues in Croatia but wanted greater cooperation in the region and higher investments, which he added should be in Croatia's interest.