Croatia, along with Greece, will be the only country that will not achieve growth for the fifth year in a row, Milosevic told a press conference in Zagreb.

"Industrial production has declined 1.5 per cent over the past year, the manufacturing industry has sunk 4.5%, exports have fallen 4.5%, wages are down 2.5% in real terms, while prices have gone up 3.9%," he said, noting that the government was not saying why this was so, but was only full of self-praise about an increase in direct investment.

"All these foreign investment projects are not creating new jobs. The government must know how to help, how to attract foreign investors and how to use diplomacy for economic purposes," Milosevic said, adding that economic growth could be achieved only with the aid of the private sector. He called for the publication of the existing feasibility study for the monetisation of motorways.

His party colleague and member of the European Parliament, Ivana Maletic, said that the European Parliament's Committee on Regional Development had discussed Croatia's preparations for the use of EU funds and drawn attention to shortcomings in that process, including the lack of the administrative capacity, interdepartmental coordination, well prepared projects, and partnership between interested parties such as local and regional government, non-governmental organisations and businesses.

Maletic said that the HDZ would start publishing a monthly called inforeg.hr to inform the public and to try and make the government see what the European Commission was saying.