Speaking of the positions of Croatia and Serbia towards the European Union, Srb said that Croatia had so far received EUR 1.3 billion in aid from the EU, while Serbia, which was not even a membership candidate, had received EUR 3.5 billion. He said that Serbia was using the Croatian accession process to strengthen its own international position.

Srb said that Croatia was naive, that its government was solely focused on wrapping up EU entry negotiations, while at the same time it ignored the fact that Serbia "has written a new memorandum", that it was expanding its influence to all countries in the region and had the support of EU members.

Srb said that a bill on a register of national minority councils was in its second reading in parliament and that it would "practically legalise the joint council of Serb-majority municipalities in Croatia."

"That represents a new Serb Autonomous District of Krajina, it will constitute an embryo of new demands for the political autonomy of the Serbs in Croatia," Srb said, stressing that it was the result of the coalition agreement between the ruling Croatian Democratic Union and the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) and part of a wider political programme of the Serbs.

Srb said that Croatia should respond by launching its own diplomatic initiative to neutralise the strengthening position of Serbia.

He said that the HSP would today present to the government a petition with 50,000 signatures to suspend its EU accession activities until elections, stop prosecuting Croatian war veterans, abolish the general amnesty, issue indictments against those responsible in Serbia for concentration camps, and set up a parliamentary commission of inquiry to identify those responsible for the handover of transcripts of wartime meetings to the Hague war crimes tribunal.