In Croatia, the decision on the admission of Sweden and Finland to NATO will be made by parliament, it is on MPs' conscience and not within the president's authority, President Zoran Milanovic said in Madrid on Wednesday.

Leaders of 30 NATO countries reached agreement at today’s summit in Madrid to invite Sweden and Finland to join after Turkey removed its blockade following an agreement with the two aspirants.

Earlier on, Milanovic pushed for making the accession of Sweden and Finland conditional on changes to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s election law in order to ensure the equality of Croats as the smallest constituent people in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The decision on the admission of new members must be ratified by all NATO member states.

“That’s now up to parliament, which decides on that and which is not within of my authority,” Milanovic told the press.

“I have reiterated a number of times on the phone to the Finnish president that this is nothing personal as far as I’m concerned. These are states which meet high criteria. What Turkey is asking of them is a lot. In principle, I’m more on Sweden’s side than Turkey’s here. We’ll see how this unfolds. It’s difficult to say if there will be some monitoring. My first interest is Croatia,” he said.

At the summit, he added, he talked most about Bosnia and Herzegovina and the rights of at least 500,000 EU citizens who are also Bosnian citizens.

“That’s a security problem and something which makes life in he neighbourhood unstable and hard for us, and which endangers at least half a million of EU citizens, which Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina are, and I want this to be settled… I can’t do much more about it,” he said.