The conference has pooled about 100 participants from Croatia and abroad, including representatives of national branches of Transparency International from Europe and Central Asia and government officials.
Addressing the event, the head of the European Commission's Delegation in Croatia, Vincent Degert, said that it was of vital importance for Croatia to address the problem of corruption as one of the basic requirements for a country's admission to the European Union.
Romania and Bulgaria have not demonstrated sufficient political will to solve the problem of corruption and that is why they are still waiting for their admission to the EU. Croatia should learn lessons from this experience, the EC representative said.
He added that Croatia's 2001 anti-corruption plan had not produced the expected results due to lack of political will.
The head of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe Mission to Croatia (OSCE), Jorge Fuentes, added that corruption existed in every country, from Iceland and Finland, that have the lowest corruption rate, to China and Bangladesh, where this problem is the most evident. On the list of 150 countries according to the corruption rate, Croatia ranks 71st, he recalled.
Fuentes said that the Croatian government and parliament had shown political will to combat this evil but added that concrete results were expected.
Deputy Prime Minister Damir Polancec told the conference that the Ivo Sanader Cabinet had shown resoluteness and political will to take measures necessary for the fight against corruption in all segments of society.
Croatia has adjusted a series of its laws to the European Union's acquis communautaire directed against corruption, Polancec said.
Justice Minister Ana Lovrin said Croatia had recently adopted a national programme for countering corruption until 2008, and that document contained measures necessary for the prevention, detection and punishment of those corrupt.