Swoboda said in a statement he clearly condemned the violence against the homosexual parade in Split and that it should not be used as an argument against Croatia's EU accession.

He added that the Croatian government and political parties had clearly distanced themselves from the violence.

Swoboda also said he had been advocating for a long time monitoring for Croatia after the completion of the EU accession negotiations as advocated by the foreign policy spokeswoman of the Green Group in the European Parliament, Ulrike Lunacek.

Swoboda's statement was a response to a statement in which Lunacek and her Green colleague Marja Cornelissen sided with the Dutch Ambassador to Croatia, Stella Ronner-Grubacic, whom he criticised earlier.

Ronner-Grubacic said the rioting at the Gay Pride parade in Split proved that Croatia needed monitoring until EU accession and that the Netherlands would request monitoring of how Croatia was meeting commitments.

Swoboda responded by saying that riots such as those in Split occurred in all EU member countries and that it was unfair of representatives of the country where a negative attitude towards the EU was being created (Netherlands) to obstruct and criticise Croatia's accession.

Today, the ambassador disagreed with Swoboda's statement, confirming that that the Netherlands would request monitoring for Croatia to last from the moment the country completes its EU entry talks to the moment of its accession.