Freedom House Europe, an association promoting democracy in Europe, on Tuesday issued a comparative overview of the situation of democracy in 29 countries and administrative areas from Central Europe to Eurasia.
Individual segments were awarded marks ranging from 7 as the lowest to 1 as the highest mark.
Croatia's priorities include implementing negotiations and meeting the EU membership criteria successfully, the association said, stressing the need to reform the judiciary in order to make it more efficient and its rulings effective and calling on the government to step up efforts to fight corruption and carry out decentralisation.
"Croatia's corruption ratings remain at 4.75; new anti-corruption policies, though they have not yet yielded visible results, offset public perceptions," reads a report issued by Freedom House Europe.
Croatia's latest ratings are the same for the fourth year in a row, but they are better than the rating of 5.25 in 1999. In 1997, when the first report on Croatia was published, and 1998, there was no information on corruption in Croatia.
"Many international reports and domestic analyses emphasize that improving the operation of Croatia's judiciary is a major challenge and that a reliable and efficient judicial system has yet to be achieved," reads the section of the report regarding Croatia's judiciary, which was awarded a mark of 4.25, which is slightly more favourable than in 2005, when the judiciary was awarded a mark of 4.50.
The best mark was awarded to civil society, 2.75 (an improvement from 3.00 in 2005), owing to its continued growth and greater public impact.
Media independence was awarded last year's rating of 3.75.
The mark for media independence remained the same as last year - at 3.75.
Electoral process was marked 3.25, which is less in relation to a mark of 3.00 in 2005, the reason being irregularities in local elections in minority-populated areas.
The government was criticised for using electoral lists from 2001 and disregarding changes in local election units, primarily those in areas of return.
Local democratic governance was awarded a mark of 3.75, the same mark as last year, and national democratic governance was awarded the same mark, 3.50.
Although talks on admission to the European Union have started, confirmation of the maturity and stability of the Croatian political system requires actual progress next year, when the process of adoption of the acquis cummunautaire will start showing concrete results, reads the report.
Freedom House also warns about the deterioration of the rule of law and an increase in corruption in Russia and oil-producing countries Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.
Freedom House, an independent, nongovernmental organisation with a number of offices throughout the world, was established 60 years ago by Eleanor Rooselvelt and several prominent Americans as a forum promoting freedom and democracy opposed to left and right-wing dictatorship.