The European Parliament's Rapporteur for Croatia, Hannes Swoboda, said in Brussels on Tuesday that Croatia should first complete its accession negotiations with the EU and then set a date for its parliamentary elections.
Croatia should wait for the negotiations to finish. It's not my job to interfere in Croatia's internal affairs, but if Croatia wants to be in the EU as soon as possible, then it should wait with setting a date for elections until after the negotiations, Swoboda said when asked to comment on demands by Croatian opposition leaders for the election date to be set as soon as possible.
Swoboda said that June was still the target date for the completion of accession negotiations, but stressed that Zagreb should carry out the remaining reforms by then, otherwise the election campaign might affect the process of conclusion of negotiations.
When asked to comment on anti-government protests in Croatia, Swoboda said that protests were normal in democratic countries, but that they should not divert the government's attention from the job of concluding the negotiations, which he added was the main task.
