The Council of the European Union on Tuesday issued a statement on last night's meeting of EU countries' foreign ministers saying that the European Commission would present as soon as possible draft common negotiating positions on the remaining open policy chapters in the entry talks with Croatia, which implies that the accession negotiations are nearing completion.

The Croatian minister does not think that anything could disturb the course of the negotiations heading towards their conclusion.

"I think that the matter has now reached the safe zone, we must be patient and we mustn't be nervous. We expect the (European) Commission to do its part of job, prepare drafts of joint negotiating positions and the member-states to accept them, and around (the meeting of) the European Council on 23-24 June we expect positive news," he said.

Croatia is not afraid of monitoring, he said adding that the monitoring "is the usual thing" and that it will not be prolonged after Croatia's entry into the European bloc.

According to him, Croatia has eliminated prejudices which exited in Europe against it and has managed to come to the threshold of the EU as the first country to do so after experiencing a war conflict.

Countries such as Great Britain, the Netherlands, France and Scandinavian countries have changed their opinion on Croatia, Jandrokovic said adding that this was a result of great headway made by the Croatian cabinet led by Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor.

"The biggest credit for that goes to us, the Croatian government led by Mrs. Kosor who has made huge progress in the past few months. This progress has been evident and recognised," the minister said.