Kitarovic was speaking before the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee to inform it in detail about what Croatia was doing to accomplish this goal. She also answered questions from Committee members.
The minister voiced hope that Croatian citizens would be able to take part in elections for the European Parliament in 2009. To make this happen, Croatia must do its part of the job and meet all membership criteria, while the EU must complete the reorganisation of its institutional framework to enable further enlargement, she said.
"Those are two parallel process and the debate about new institutional solutions does not affect the course of negotiations," Grabar Kitarovic said, adding that speculation about entry dates could be unproductive, but that it was also important to have a set time framework.
Committee members asked the Croatian minister a number of questions on Croatia's positions regarding its role in the region, election results in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the adoption of the new Serbian constitution, refugee return, minority rights, and relations with Slovenia.
Speaking about outstanding issues with Slovenia regarding the delimitation of the land and sea borders, Grabar Kitarovic said that those were bilateral issues that should remain bilateral.
The European representative from Austria, Hannes Swoboda, was of the same view, saying that Croatia and Slovenia should solve border-related issues bilaterally and that this was not an obstacle to the continuation of Croatia's negotiations and its EU entry, which was evidenced by several outstanding border issues between long-standing EU members.
Asked if she was worried about the possibility of Slovenia stalling the process of negotiation, the minister answered in the negative, adding that this would not be fair of Slovenia.
She reiterated the Croatian government's proposal that outstanding issues should be settled before an independent international court.