Croatian President Ivo Josipovic said relations between Serbia and Croatia are better than a few years ago, and the political dimension of the mutual genocide lawsuits is overestimated.

"The public, and therefore the political scene, of both countries is very sensitive when it comes to this issue. At the same time, the effects of the lawsuits might be overestimated as far as what is believed the suits can achieve," Josipovic said in an interview to the weekly NIN.

Asked whether Croatia plans to stand in the way of Serbia's EU integration over an unresolved border dispute along the Danube, Josipovic said this will not happen.

"Our parliament has even passed a special declaration which states that Croatia, as a soon-to-be EU member country, will not abuse this status to solve bilateral problems and disputes with neighbors," said the Croatian president.

According to him, the border dispute does not greatly affect daily politics in Croatia.

"On the other hand, if each side stays rooted in its position, it will be hard to come to an agreement," he noted.
Josipovic said there are also a lot of open issues.

"These are serious problems, but with what we have accomplished in our relations so far, we have created a good foundation to start talking very openly about these problems, and to finally start solving them, one by one," he said.

Josipovic said there is a vocal segment of the political scene both in Croatia and in Serbia which would put up a Chinese wall between the two countries, but the voters did not choose this policy and it does not carry political weight.