"The Croatian government and parliament must put a development strategy on their agendas as soon as possible, which must be compatible with what will be awaiting us in the EU," Mesic said at a press conference in his election headquarters.
He pointed out that without a developed economy it would not be possible to deal with burning issues such as unemployment, social problems and low productivity.
"The Croatian economy is not quite ready for EU entry at the moment, and that is why negotiations are so important to us, because we must prepare all institutions, all branches of the economy, in order to become partners to EU countries," he said.
The president asked the government to explain to citizens what Croatia would gain and what it would lose by joining the EU, noting that a lot of citizens were showing scepticism about joining the bloc due to lack of information.
Mesic warned of the problem of insolvency and called on the government to take responsibility and "set Croatia in motion" as it had promised rather than find fault with the previous government.
Mesic welcomed an agreement by political parties on the make-up of a negotiating team that will represent Croatia in membership talks with the EU. He added that he had agreed in earlier consultations with Prime Minister Ivo Sanader that the current ambassador to the United Nations, Vladimir Drobnjak, should be appointed as chief negotiator.
Speaking of the role of president of the country, Mesic said that a president should act as "a corrective factor" because concentration of power in the hands of one party would mean "a return to what we had, and that would not lead to European standards".
He rejected an article in today's issue of the Rijeka-based newspaper Novi List, which accused him of glorifying the Third Reich during his visit to Duga Resa on Thursday. He said that he compared the production of Nazi Germany in the Second World War to that of Croatia in the 1991-1995 war, because he wanted to show that Germany had invested most of its efforts in production, while Croatia destroyed its own production.
Mesic said he was looking forward to a one-on-one debate on national television with his rival, Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) candidate Jadranka Kosor, adding that such duels, in which individuals rather than parties present their views, made it easier for citizens to decide who to vote for.