Croatian President Ivo Josipovic said on Tuesday that he expected the next European Commission progress report on Croatia to show progress in the process of Croatia's integration with the EU, adding that it was unfavourable that Croatia still did not have an accession date.
Speaking of the new European Commission progress report on Croatia, expected to be published later in the day, Josipovic said that Croatia's still not having an accession date showed that the country had to demonstrate more determination in fighting corruption and reforming the judiciary and public administration, as well as in economic reforms.
I believe the report will show progress, and on the one hand we can be satisfied with it, but on the other hand, there is still a lot of work to be done, Josipovic told reporters after visiting the Zagreb Faculty of Economics on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of its establishment.
"We must be focused as much as possible in this last stage, because it would be a tragedy if, after such a long journey, during which many good things were done, we missed the deadlines and failed to join the EU at the optimal pace, by 1 January 2013 at the latest. Certain financial funds that are not insignificant depend on that and if my information is correct, missing the deadline would mean a loss of 1.2 billion euros," said the president.
