"That is our obligation and that is why European funds are being made available for this purpose, however, any serious infrastructure project requires three to four years to be launched", said Minister Zmajlovic at the Euforia Project conference held in Mimara Museum dedicated to problems relating to waste management and environment protection.

He considers that Croatia is capable of constructing such a system in the set time even though some interim deadlines may be delayed. He recalled that the first interim deadline agreed with the European Union was at the end of this year by which time the quantity of biological waste at dump sites should be reduced. The only way to achieve this is for Croatia to construct a biological waste processing centre, the minister said adding that this was why Croatia most definitely would not be able to meet this deadline.

He noted that of the 20 waste management centres planned for Croatia, only three were nearing completion - Kastijun, Mariscina and Bikarac which were financed by EU pre-accession funds.

He underscored that it was necessary to enhance the type of packaging of products so that it is recyclable.

"This costs a lot, the Environment Protection Fund is inefficient and needs to be urgently changed, its organisation and manner of managing waste packaging", he announced.