(Hina) - Croatia as of today already needs to change its way of thinking of the European Union (EU) because once we join the EU on July 1, our priority will no longer be to adapt to EU standards but to participate in creating them and Croatia should know exactly what it wants and mobilise all its intellectual potential which, in addition to ambition and the beauty of this country, can make it one of the most successful members of the EU, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Vesna Pusić said on Tuesday.
Pusić was addressing a conference on Croatia's preparedness for EU membership, organised by the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK) and the ministry's Centre of Excellence attended by more than 400 participants.
Recalling Croatia's difficult and long path to full EU membership, Minister Pusić underscored that as of July 1 the most significant aspect would be communication between state administration and individual sectors because, as she said, there would be no room for even slight irresponsibility and nothing would fall from the sky but everything depended on our abilities.
There is no doubt that Croatia will function well in the EU despite the risks and that this will be an excellent opportunity that we need to utilise all the more so because until 2020 we will have EUR 11.7 billion available from EU funds, mostly to finance large infrastructure and public projects but also projects for entrepreneurs.
She reflected on the recent situation concerning the use of traditional seeds in farming and said this was just one of the topics waiting for Croatia in the EU and Croatia had to have a stance and offer its opinion, she pointed out.
In this and all other issues that Croatia will participate in as of July 1, Croatia has to be capable of lobbying and forming alliances with the region and other countries that have similar opinions and that way achieve similar good results already being achieved by Croatia MEPs and the ministry's centre of excellence whose experts are working on various projects and whose 'know-how' has become recognised and is a potential export product which has already attracted interest from neighbouring non-member countries.