In their work, these officials, like Croatia's citizens, focus on the future and the creation of conditions for Croatia's stable democratic development and overall progress, Mesic said, adding that this was our main task and a historic challenge of the times we live in.
Today Croatia is a stable country, a developed democracy with increasingly better prerequisites for the development of science, culture, arts and the public activity of the individual, Mesic said, wishing them success in future work and the best on the occasion of Statehood Day, observed on June 25.
Thanking Mesic on behalf of those decorated, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts president Milan Mogus said he was pleased that despite hardships Croatia was recognising the value of knowledge and culture as foundations of its survival.