Prime Minister Ivo Sanader has described the decision to launch the EU entry negotiations, which the Council of Ministers adopted on October 3, as the end of the first difficult chapter in reinforcing Croatia's international position. In mid-March, the EU foreign ministers postponed the negotiations without setting a new date.
Both decisions were influenced by the assessment of Croatia's cooperation with the war crimes tribunal in The Hague delivered by chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte. She claimed in March that General Gotovina, who had been on the run since being indicted in the summer of 2001, was within the Croatian authorities' reach.
In order to close this, its last outstanding issue in relations with the UN court, in late April the government drew up a plan of operations to confirm its determination to fully cooperate with the tribunal.
Gotovina was arrested on the Canary Islands in early December, leading to protests in Croatia, one of which ended with the smashing of windows on the government headquarters.
Last year the government paid great attention to the infrastructure. The highway connecting Zagreb and Split was opened in its entirety in the summer, construction on the highway from Split further south to Ploce continued, and construction began on a bridge connecting the mainland with the Peljesac peninsula.
The government continued with judicial and health reforms, and helped entrepreneurs by shortening times for obtaining various permits via the Hitro.hr project, which has been launched in eight cities so far.
The Ivo Sanader Cabinet also ensured all conditions so that it could settle its debt to pensioners, and transferred seven per cent of shares in Croatian Telecom and the INA oil company into the War Veterans Fund.
The government convened about 70 times in 2005. It relieved of duties Andrija Hebrang, Miomir Zuzul and Marijan Mlinaric, and appointed Damir Polancec, Neven Ljubicic and Ivica Kirin. Zuzul's departure from the foreign minister's post resulted in a joinder of the foreign and European integration ministries, with the appointment of Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic as minister of foreign affairs and European integration.
Government performance reflected on the performance of parliament, which adopted 132 laws, including about 30 in order to adjust to European standards, and 127 decisions. Earlier in the year, parliament set up a national committee to monitor the EU entry negotiations and adopted a resolution on strategic guidelines in the negotiating process.