It is crucial for Croatia to use the run-up to its EU entry for improving its business and investment climate so as to move upward on the list of countries ranked according to how easy it is to do business in them, Gill added.

He warned that the structure of Croatian businesses was not much suitable to the EU market due to the dominance of small businesses which are hampered by their limited resources in the competition on the common market.

In addition, Croatia should take care of the level of its public spending. With the current share of public spending in GDP of more than 40%, Croatia should have the highest quality of public services in the world, he explained.

According to him, also problematic is the fact that Croatia's social security accounts for 13% of GDP, while the acceptable upper limit is 10%.

Croatia's characteristics may lead to the country entering the EU as "a southern economy, which would not be good in the context of the crisis of European economies, mainly those from the southwest to the southeast of the continent," the World Bank official said.

The study "Golden Growth: Restoring the Lustre of the European Economic Model" deals with Europe's long-term growth, with emphasis on the period in the past 20 years. It also analyses what should be done to provide for permanent prosperity in the decades to come.

The publication also analyses the six most important elements of the European growth model: trade, finance, entrepreneurship, innovations, labour and state administration.

Of those six pillars of growth in the past 60 years, Europe still has a very firm footing in trade and finances, and a firm footing in entrepreneurship and innovations. However, most European countries should improve their state administration and labour market.