Stressing that Croatia was passing through the last moments of its exit from its "Balkan phase", namely the post-conflict phase, President Josipovic said that the exit was possible thanks to the certainty of admission to the European Union.
Today when the European Union, in particular eurozone members, are facing great challenges of the financial crisis, it is important to have in mind values stemming from every act of the EU enlargement, Josipovic said in his speech, urging the continuation of the EU enlargement until all southeastern European countries felt advantages of EU membership.
According to him, in the last year Croatia made great headway towards the political culture of compromise, and in this context he mentioned the Croatian-Slovenian border arbitration agreement.
Josipovic expressed hope that the Slovenians would back the agreement at a referendum on Sunday.
He went on to say that he and Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor would like to import the European culture of compromise and to step up cooperation in the neighbourhood.
Commenting on the government's economic recovery measures, the president said he supported them but held them to be insufficient.
Branding corruption as a significant negative economic category, he called for an extremely resolute battle against corruption.
Speaking on behalf of the diplomatic corps, Spanish Ambassador Manuel Salazar expressed hope that Croatia's EU accession negotiations would be soon completed and congratulated Josipovic for the fact that Croatia would enter the EU during his term in office.