Croatia's Deputy Prime Minister and leading political figure, Tomislav Karamarko, said that the most recent European Union member continues to support Serbia's future accession, but added that Zagreb will put forward its own terms in the process.
"Serbia needs to reach the standards that had to be met by everyone who joined the European Union. This is not an easy process and there is a difficult road ahead for Serbia. We will, of course, have some requests of our own, which is only logical," Karamarko said.
Talk of possible Croatian obstacles for Serbia began surfacing following the decision of the Hague War Crimes Tribunal for Yugoslavia to acquit Serbian nationalist politician Vojislav Seselj, who was indicted for war crimes.
Seselj promoted nationalist policies against Croatia and helped recruit paramilitary units that took part in Serbia's military invasion that was meant to prevent Croatia declaring independence from Yugoslavia.
The bloody war between the two countries ended with complete Croatian military victory in 1995, after years of urban warfare and atrocities against civilians.
As soon as Seselj was released from the Hague last year, due to health reasons, he returned to his promotion of aggressive policies against Croatia, expressing territorial claims at rallies of his supporters and burning the Croatian flag.
Following the verdict, Croatia banned him from entering its territory.
Karamarko said that Seselj's actions are a mockery of justice and an insult to all victims of Serbian nationalism.
One of the legal issues Croatia is expected to raise in regards to Serbia is the fact that the latter considers it has complete jurisdiction to put on trial war crimes suspects for attacks performed anywhere in former Yugoslavia.
This, in theory, would mean it can put on trial Croatian officers.
"We are not trying to cause problems for Serbia. Serbia is causing these problems for herself", Karamarko said regarding this clause.
Croatia has the right to stop Serbia's EU accession talks at any point, he added.