"I was shocked to read in a Croatian daily an article accusing me of party political favoritism. I was even more appalled to learn that these accusations come from the Croatian Government", said German MEP Pack, reacting to an article published in today's Croatian daily Jutarnji list.

"I have been following Croatia for many years. I followed it before its independence, through the war and throughout its European journey. In that entire time I was never afraid to be critical. May I remind the current Government that 17 out of the last 21 years, the HDZ held power in Croatia. If anything I was more critical to HDZ governments because the task at hand, conducting and concluding accession negotiations was too important to be taken lightly" continued Doris Pack.

"What I have said about Croatia's progress was in fact the exact opposite to the recent statements by two German gentlemen. For Croatia, monitoring is a normal situation between the conclusion of negotiations and the date of accession. It is designed to help the government tie up any loose ends. Croatia cannot be compared to other countries and it should not be paying for the sins of others. But it has to do its job before accession. It is as simple as that", Pack wrote, but stopped short of saying to whom she was referring to when she mentioned the two German gentlemen.

"I would like to suggest to the current government, as well as to the two German gentlemen, that they should do well to read the monitoring report because everything is contained in it. There is no need for interpretations. And there is especially no need to be finding excuses like today's article, attacking somebody who has been a friend to Croatia for many years", said Doris Pack.

Bundestag Speaker Norbert Lammert of the CDU and the European affairs committee chair, Gunther Krichbaum, CDU, have stated that they find Croatia unready for European Union membership and that mistakes made with the admission of Bulgaria and Romania should not be repeated.