Recalling that the Stabilisation and Association Council would hold a meeting in Brussels on June 6, Pusic said that the meeting would provide an opportunity "to lay the foundations for what will be a comprehensive report in October, on the basis of which many member-countries will ratify our EU Accession Treaty."

The government should pay special attention to six problematic points, including this year's Gay Pride parade in Split, which will be closely followed by the European Commission and the diplomatic corps in Croatia.

With regard to minority rights, Pusic said that the unobstructed holding of the second Gay Pride parade in Split on June 9 was underlined as particularly important. She added that she would attend the event.

Possible obstruction of the Gay Pride parade could pose a problem for Croatia in terms of enforcement of the national legislation as well as in terms of prevention of discrimination because it would mean violation of the principle of non-discrimination on any grounds, whether ethnic or sexual, Pusic said.

The other problematic points are the shipyards, the need to abolish fees paid by telecom operators, improvement of the situation in the judiciary through reduction of backlog cases, notably civil cases, regulating the system of distraint procedures and removing problems regarding legislation on the prevention of conflict of interest.

She added that another important issue was integrated border management and the need to step up the construction and equipment of border crossings along the Neum corridor, which she said was rather late.

Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic announced the preparation of a law that would define in greater detail relations between the government and the parliament with regard to directives and regulations to be adopted in Brussels.

After Croatia joins the EU, decisions will be adopted in Brussels that will be directly applicable in Croatia and that sometimes will be against our views, said Milanovic.

A large number of those decisions will not have to be transposed into Croatian legislation, while those that will have to be transposed will have a direct impact on citizens' rights and we should prepare for an entirely new legal system, Milanovic said.

Regulations do not have to be transposed into national laws but are applied directly, while directives are a different type of rules that are transposed into national legislation. Directives contain goals and each member-country is free to decide how it will achieve those goals.