Croatian parliamentarians informed EP colleagues about their work on adjusting the national legislation to EU standards in the sectors of ecology and agriculture. They said that Croatia would need longer transitional periods and financial support from the European Union's pre-accession funds in this job.
The vice-chairman of the EP committee, Georgs Andrejevs cautioned that issues from the areas of environment protection, health and food can be obstacles on the path towards the membership in the Union.
He, however, praised Croatia for great progress it had made on the road towards the EU full membership and added that Zagreb could count on the EU support in efforts to remove problems.
There must not be any obstacle which you cannot solve, Andrejevs said.
The chairman of the Croatian Zoning and Environment Protection Committee, Slavko Linic, told guests that in 2005 Croatia adopted its first strategy for waste management with an aim of removing illegal waste dumps and using waste as secondary raw materials.
He admitted that Croatia lacked experience in this area which was why advice from colleagues in EU would be welcome.
The committee's vice-chairman, Marko Sirac, said that Croatia needed three billion euros for protection of water.
He informed the EP delegation, that 78 percent of population was provided with drinking water supplies, and that 43 percent was connected to sewage systems, but only 25 percent of waste water was purified.
Asked by EP parliamentarians when Croatia would ratify the Kyoto protocol regulating countries' emissions of carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases, Sirac said Zagreb would do it by the end of this year.