"This is a joint instrument with which representatives of the government, trade unions and employers will meet challenges of the contemporary Croatian society," Sanader said at the start of a one-day seminar on social social partnership in Croatia and the European Union, which was held on Saturday in Karlovac (50 kilometres south of Zagreb).
The event, organised by the Sanader Cabinet's social partnership office, pooled top government officials, ministers who are engaged in the Economic and Social Council, representatives of the six leading trade union federations and the Croatian Employers' Association (HUP).
Sanader said that the participation of the top government officials in the Karlovac seminar should be seen as the part of the government's "systematic and sincere approach" to efforts aimed at solving problems.
The PM went on to say that the aim of the event was to promote mutual trust and to define tasks which Croatia should carry out, using the experience of European countries.
Participants in the seminar are also expected to set up a working group that will define a national wage policy.
In this context Sanader said that the wage policy was one of 45 points of the platform drawn up by the National Council for Competitiveness, and the document is expected to regulate the rise in salaries being lower than the rise in Gross Domestic Product.
Commenting on Croatia's bid to enter the EU, the PM said the government had adopted a clear position on the issue opting for the inclusion of all social partners in the entry negotiations. Thus, the parliamentary committee for the supervision of the negotiations will also comprise employers and unionists. In this context, Sanader asked the social partners to propose their competent representatives on the committee.
He also called on the social partners to engage themselves in the resolution of the problem of the grey economy.
Sanader said that the privatisation in the Croatian manner in the 1990s was wrong, but at the time there were no models for the transition from the socialist into the capitalist society.