It is not the time for pessimism and frustration after the postponement of negotiations between Croatia and the European Union last month, said Figel, who used to be the chief Slovak negotiator with the European bloc.
Instead, Croatia should focus on the active preparation of its citizens for admission into the EU, particularly in education, the area in which the most should be invested for the sake of the future, Figel said during his lecture "Reform of Higher Education on the Road Towards the EU".
There are two key elements in this investment: lifelong learning and mobility of the academic community which leads to the mobility of the labour force, the European Commissioner said.
Without lifelong learning there will be no lifelong salary, Figel said.
Croatia has achieved good results in some parameters, for instance in the number of citizens who finish secondary school, but it is lagging behind in lifelong learning with only two percent of its citizens engaged in it, as opposed to the nine percent in Europe, he said, adding that in some parts of the world this percentage was much higher.
Figel also recommended that Croatia increase funds invested in higher education.
According to him, the European goal is to create "a more compatible and mobile area" in tertiary education so as to become more competitive with the United States or Japan and Korea.
The Bologna process, whose signatory is Croatia, plays an important role in plans to establish a single European higher education field.
In accordance with the Erasmus programme, a million students already attend classes in foreign universities, and the EU's goal is to increase this number to three million by 2011.
We would like to see Croatia being integrated in this process Figel said.
Earlier in the day, Figel was received by Croatian Education, Science and Sport Minister Dragan Primorac who informed the EC official and the chief of the European Commission Delegation to Zagreb, Jacques Wunenburger, of the reform in education in the country, the Education Ministry stated in a press release.
Primorac notified the guests of the application of the EC's TEMPUS programme in the reform of Croatia's tertiary education, and voiced satisfaction with the consensus of the entire academic community on the implementation of the reform.
Within the TEMPUS programme, the EU approves one-off funds for the implementation of the Bologna process at universities.
The minister said that 800 higher education curricula had already been adjusted to EU curricula.
He also spoke about reforms in primary schools and plans for intensified activities in the lifelong learning sector.
Commissioner Figel said that one of the priorities of the European Commission is to enhance the quality of education as a precondition for strengthening the global competitiveness of the EU economy.
He expressed hope that the EU would implement the principles of the Bologna declaration and create a single European tertiary education area by 2010.