Delivering a lecture "Challenges on Croatia's path to full EU membership" at the city's School of Economics, Rehn said that those issues should be dealt with at the beginning of the accession process, instead of at its end.
The process of Europe's unification cannot be completed without Croatia and its regional neighbours as EU members. Croatia is at the top of our enlargement agenda, Rehn said.
As we are internally preparing for a new institutional agreement, the gradually and carefully conducted accession process with Croatia is moving forward. Judging by the negotiating process as it is now, Croatia should become the 28th member of the EU, Rehn said.
Noting that there were some voices within the EU saying that the enlargement should be discontinued and that there were no benefits from enlargement, Rehn said that enlargement was useful for both old and new EU members because it encouraged economic growth. After the latest enlargement round, Baltic countries and Slovenia recorded the fastest economic growth rates, Rehn added.
The EU official announced that in the next two years the EU would reform its structures and decision-making process because the regulations and capacity in line with which it was functioning now were the same as when it had only 15 members.
Rehn recalled that some of the basic requirements for full membership of the EU were adjustment of domestic legislation to that of the EU, minority rights, unobstructed prosecution of war crimes, and development of good neighbourly relations.
Croatia is not joining the EU for the sake of politicians in Brussels, but to ensure better living conditions for its citizens, and it must consolidate its market economy and prepare for market competition in the European Union, Rehn said.
Croatian Foreign Affairs and European Integration Minister Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic, who was accompanying Rehn, told reporters that direct communication with the public, particularly students, was the best way of acquainting the public with the effects of EU membership.
Asked to comment on Rehn's statement about the three major challenges on Croatia's path to the EU, Grabar Kitarovic said that Croatia was working and would continue working on those challenges.
After the lecture in Osijek, Rehn was due to visit Vukovar County.