"Croatia is almost completely ready and will be completely ready in July next year", Milanovic told reporters on arrival to attend a summit of EU heads of state or government as an observer.

He declined to comment on statements that questioned Croatia's readiness for membership, saying that he did not hear such comments from his counterparts from EU governments.

"Croatia has done a lot of work and I expect if anyone, above all those in executive authority, who has any objections to address them to me. I am ready to listen if the objection is founded, and since these are only well-meaning people and friends, I do not see any problems here", Milanovic said.

"In the monitoring report we were given ten precise points which we will no doubt fulfil. The accession treaty clearly stipulates our commitments and we adhere to them. I do not want to speculate beyond that. If someone believes that Croatia should do something more, if they have a specific demand of which we are not aware or we do not understand our obligations well enough, then they should clearly say so, but I have not yet heard anything as such", he added.

Milanovic said that the European Union was discussing some very important changes to the existing rules, adding that Croatian citizens would possibly need to vote on them in some sort of referendum.

"These meetings are of special importance, because they might be preparing decisions that have nothing to do with what Croatia signed a year ago, when we went to the referendum. Croatian citizens will have to vote on all those matters, possibly in some sort of referendum, because we can see that if EU members go to a referendum, which they do very rarely, they do so precisely for such topics, when European treaties are being amended. Very important rules are being changed, which affect people's lives. The treaty we signed differs from what has been discussed in the last nine months. The Croatian public will have to state their opinion and we have to inform the people. These are very important matters that concern our lives and our money", the PM said.

Since the outbreak of the financial and economic crisis, the European Union has been working on its reform, which might result in a substantially different Union than it is today.

When asked to comment on his statement about the activity of the Croatian opposition abroad, Milanovic said he had not said that the opposition was doing damage to Croatia's national interests, and that the statement he had made in Germany was misinterpreted.