After meeting with local officials, Vandoren told reporters Croatia would have more funds for infrastructure projects upon EU accession, and that it was important to continue informing citizens about all issues pertaining to the EU and Croatia's accession.

He said today's talks also discussed the obstacles which domestic and foreign investors encountered in launching local investments, adding that he would pursue the dialogue with the Croatian government in order to help remove those obstacles.

We have talked a lot, at all levels, about those difficulties and how things must change, and now is the time to act, said Vandoren.

Asked by the press if he was satisfied with the pace at which the government was dealing with the issue of the shipyards, he said the European Commission would release on Tuesday a report on the monitoring of Croatia's EU accession process in which it would state its opinion on what had been done to solve the situation in the shipbuilding sector.

Osijek-Baranja County Prefect Vladimir Sisljagic told Vandoren that local self-government units had few powers and that if they were greater, it would much easier to launch investment and development projects.