"As the head of the National Committee for monitoring the negotiations, I am not surprised by the report. It is well-balanced and it speaks in a good way about areas in which we succeeded and areas where we have outstanding issues and which require much more work, so no time should be wasted," Racan said.
The head of the European Commission Delegation in Croatia, Vincent Degert, today presented the progress report, that the European Commission published on Wednesday, to representatives of the National Committee and parliamentary committees on foreign affairs and European integration.
Racan said that the pace and quality of Croatia's joining the bloc depended primarily on Croatia, adding that as president of the strongest opposition party, the Social Democrats, he would comment on the EC's report in detail at his party's assembly on Saturday.
Asked if he was satisfied with the report, Racan said it was not good to have a selective approach to the report and take out only the things that suit you.
"I believe it is not good to ignore serious warnings about Croatia's problems, and it is even more important to listen to us in Croatia about where the problems are," Racan said.
Degert stressed the importance of the report, because it is the first report since Croatia started EU membership negotiations. He added that criticism from the report could only help Croatia to prepare itself better and avoid the situation that Romania and Bulgaria found themselves in as the EU threatened them it would delay their admission for a year.
Speaking about political criteria for membership, Degert singled out three key areas in which Croatia needed to accelerate reforms - public administration, the judiciary and fight against corruption and organised crime.
Speaking of freedom of speech, the EC official said negative examples were political interference in the work of the media in December 2005 and the recent appointment of Hina's Governing Council.
Degert, however, praised Croatia's cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. He added the EC expected Croatia to make improvements on the economic front.