Fuele was speaking at a plenary session of the European Parliament, with one of the items on the agenda being the approval of Croatia's Treaty of Accession.

The European Parliament on Wednesday discussed giving its consent for Croatia's Treaty of Accession to the EU, and on Thursday it will vote on the matter. The Croatia-EU Treaty of Accession will be signed on December 9, just before the start of a meeting of the European Council which will then be in session for the first time with 28 countries present, and Croatia will have observer status at the meeting.

Croatia is expected to become a member of the EU on 1 July 2013.

The discussion and vote at the European Parliament is being attended by a Croatian parliamentary delegation led by Speaker Luka Bebic. The delegation is comprised of Neven Mimica, Zeljka Antunovic, Vesna Pusic, Marija Pejcinovic Buric and Milorad Pupovac.

In his address, Fuele said the vote of the European Parliament would be a vote for Croatia, the region and the European Union.

Croatia today is very much different than it used to be when it submitted its membership application almost ten years ago. The transformative power of the enlargement process is evidenced by Croatia's example in many aspects. The country's economy is prepared to be a part of the internal market and cope with the financial crisis, even though in the current challenging times, Croatia should not ignore further economic reforms. More importantly, democratic principles and fundamental rights are respected and the rule of law has been strengthened by numerous reforms, said Fuele.

The Enlargement Commissioner recalled that Croatia was the first country to negotiate its EU membership according to a new methodology, including benchmarks for the opening and closing of policy areas.

He noted that the completion of the membership talks did not mean that the job was over. Croatia now has to show that it will meet the commitments assumed during the negotiations. Preparations will continue until accession. The completion of those preparations will be the main priority of the government that will be formed after the December elections, said Fuele.

Today's plenary session opened with a debate on the eurozone in the context of preparations for the EU summit to be held on December 9. Right after it started, the debate was interrupted due to a fire alarm exercise which was held in all public institutions in Belgium today. All those who happened to be in the European Parliament building had to leave the building for half an hour.

European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Olli Rehn, who in his previous term was Enlargement Commissioner, also spoke about Croatia.

I hope that tomorrow's vote will open the door to the signing of the Accession Treaty on December 9. This is a historic watershed for Croatia and a very important event for the entire Southeast Europe, said Rehn after submitting a report on what the European Commission was doing to overcome the debt crisis.

Polish State Secretary for European Affairs Mikolaj Dowgielewicz congratulated Croatia on its success on behalf of the Polish EU Presidency, saying that it was a very important event also for Croatia's Southeast European neighbours.

Dowgielewicz expressed satisfaction that Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor would attend as an observer the meeting of the European Council, to start right after the signing of the accession treaty.

The European Parliament's rapporteur on Croatia, Hannes Swoboda, said that Croatia had done a huge job during the negotiations, underlining the fight against corruption and illustrating it with the fact that former PM Ivo Sanader was on trial for corruption.

German Christian Democrat Bernd Posselt said that Croatia was one of the best prepared accession candidates. He expressed satisfaction with the forthcoming arrival of parliamentary observers from Croatia, and at the end of his address exclaimed in Croatian "Long live Croatia!"

In a brief mutual debate, Posselt and the British Conservative Charles Tannock agreed that former PM Sanader, too, deserved credit for Croatia's accession and that it was up to the court to decide if he was guilty as charged.

Representatives of all political groups expressed satisfaction with Croatia's accession, welcoming it as the 28th EU member.

Participating in the discussion were also Slovenian MEPs Ivo Vajgl, Tanja Fajon, Lojze Peterle and Jelko Kacin, who expressed satisfaction that Croatia was at the EU's door.

The only polemical address was made by the British Euroskeptic Nigel Farage who said that Croatians had waited for their independence for a thousand years only to lose it again after 20 years. Voting for joining the EU means voting for joining a new Yugoslavia, Farage said, adding that Croatian structures still included former communists and that there was no freedom of the press to publish an article against accession to the EU.