Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader Zoran Milanovic said on Saturday that it was important that a forthcoming referendum on European Union membership should be conducted successfully and that it should be held after parliamentary elections.
Milanovic was speaking to the press in Virovitica, about 100 kilometres east of Zagreb, where he was attending a convention of the SDP's Virovitica-Podravina County branch.
Responding to remarks by reporters that he had failed to comment on Friday on the European Commission's decision to give a green light to Croatia's admission to the EU, Milanovic said that he was doing it today and that he had also talked about it on Monday and Tuesday.
"Although the decision is not formal yet, Croatia will enter the EU in 2013. That will indeed be a historic moment, and what happened yesterday was indeed one of the major events, but they happen every day. The most important thing for Croatia now is to focus on its own problems, which surpass legislative alignment and copying of European laws. Real reforms have not begun yet," Milanovic said.
He said that the forthcoming parliamentary elections would be tough and demanding, adding that the SDP had not begun the campaign yet, but that it was among the people every day.
"The campaign starts 30 days before elections, and when that will be will be decided by the ruling coalition," Milanovic said.
