"We have a lot of room for advancement. There are too many people in state administration, but too few with education qualifications that we need," Pusic said when asked to assess the level of preparation of state administration for EU membership.

Croatia is tired of poverty, and the policy of newly-elected French President Francois Hollande to focus on growth rather than on cost cutting seems like a life-saving change, but the question is how to put it in practice, the minister said.

With Hollande's arrival "growth and jobs have been given much greater visibility," Pusic said when asked whether Croatia would be more inclined to Germany's or France's approach to dealing with the eurozone crisis.

With its entry into the EU on 1 July 2013, Croatia will not immediately become part of the Schengen area, but when it does in the next two and a half years it will affect the Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, she said.

"I think it's an important project for the stability of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the stability of Bosnia and Herzegovina has a crucial effect on the stability of the entire region, including Croatia," Pusic said.

On the subject of the forthcoming Gay Pride parade in Split, Pusic reiterated that the European Commission and foreign diplomats would be following the parade to see for themselves that Croatia complied with the law on the protection of minorities. She repeated that she and several other ministers would be participating in the event.

Pusic also reiterated that the issue of Croatian foreign-exchange savings deposits in the now defunct Slovenian bank Ljubljanska Banka was a separate issue and could not be linked to the Slovenian ratification of Croatia's EU accession treaty.