"You can consider me your representative in the European Parliament. Italy expects Croatia's EU entry talks to start as soon as possible, and its admission to that association will create conditions of equal rules for Croatia, Slovenia and Italy, which will definitely facilitate the solution of outstanding issues," Brunetta said at a news conference.
Brunetta was heading a delegation of representatives of a group of centre-right parties, called Forza Italia, which is headed by Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi. The delegation today visited Rovinj's Centre for Historical Research.
Speaking to reporters, Brunetta stressed the very good cooperation between the Italian and Croatian prime ministers, saying that they were frequently solving problems in direct communication.
The leader of the European People's Party (EPP) representatives in the European Parliament's Committee of the Regions, Isidoro Gottardo, said the Croatian Democratic Union was a party which had positively evolved on the European political scene and the party on which the EPP was focusing most of its attention. Forza Italia is a member of the EPP.
"We appreciate very much what the Croatian government has been doing to start membership talks with the European Union and this is why Prime Minister Sanader will make history as a prime minister who made big steps important for the future of the Croatian people," Gottardi said.
Italian MP Giulio Camber said his party was preparing an official proposal for the return of property of post-World War II Italian refugees from Croatia (so-called esuli), which he said would soon be submitted to the Italian government.
Sabor representative Furio Radin, who along with Italian Union president Maurizio Tremul was the host of the Italian delegation, stressed the importance of their visit, saying that this was the first official visit of an Italian centre-right party to the Italian community in Croatia and Slovenia.
He said that the establishment of political, economic and cultural cooperation, the return of the property of the esuli and support for Croatia's EU entry talks were the main topics discussed during the delegation's two-day visit to Croatia.