Croatia News - CroatiaPress.com

Zagreb, March 8 (CP) – Croatia’s assistant Foreign Minister Neven Pelicaric has spoken to Swedish Ambassador to Zagreb, Lars Freden expressing concern over the statement of his colleague in Belgrade Krister Bringeus made on Thursday that Croatia and Serbia would joint the EU together between 2012 and 2015 and demanding an official position on this.

Ambassador Freden reiterated the official stance of Sweden that it was planning to complete the negotiations on Croatia’s EU bid during its presidency over the EU in 2009.

Freden said that statements conveyed in any other way did not represent the official stance of Sweden.

At the same time, Croatia’s Ambassador to Sweden Svjetlan Berkovic had demanded an official explanation of the statements by Ambassador Bringeus and was informed the statement was misquoted, its aim being to spur on Serbia to start focusing on its future EU membership.

Croatia is currently in a very delicate position, as it’s EU negotiations have been all but halted due to it announcing the implementation of its Protected Ecology and Fisheries Belt (ZERP) against EU members, putting its goal of completing entry negotiations by 2009 in question.

Statements like the one by the Swedish Ambassador to Belgrade, although allegedly misquoted are not helping the situation and a recent poll has shown that 66 percent of Croatian citizens do not believe Croatia will join the EU in 2009, but that this would happen at a later time.