The date of Croatia's accession to the European Union has not been set but if Croatia carries out reforms and meets commitments it can expect to join next year, President Stjepan Mesić said on Thursday after talks with his Polish President Lech Kaczynski.
Croatia has to open new negotiating chapters and close the ones already opened, said President Mesić.
Asked about the speed of Croatia's EU accession given the latest developments, President Kaczynski said that speculation on dates went all the way to 2011 but underlined that Poland had nothing against Croatia's joining as soon as possible. Polish President emphasized that the biggest European countries had already made their decisions on the matter but that the decisions had not been made public yet.
President Kaczynski added that the watershed moment for Croatia occurred at the European Council last March although no official decisions were made then. Poland cares about the opening and enlargement of the EU and Croatia can count on Poland's support, said President Kaczynski.
"We wish Croatia to join European and world systems as soon as possible", he said, underlining that he wanted to see Croatia in an alliance of peoples and not in a federation as this was the only way to achieve more comprehensive and more complete cooperation.
The two presidents also discussed the situation in the region, the world's hot spots and bilateral relations. They said Croatia-Poland relations were very good and could only get better.
President Kaczynski cut short his two-day visit to Croatia because of the crash of a Polish military plane which killed twenty people last night. Polish President cancelled meetings with Prime Minister Ivo Sanader and Parliament Speaker Luka Bebić and a trip to Dubrovnik tomorrow.
President Mesić invited President Kaczynski to return to Croatia soon.