"The prevailing opinion in Croatia is that we are being judged by different standards," Drobnjak said in the interview which the daily ran on Thursday.
He pointed to the Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal as "the main obstacle" and added that "in every other field Croatia was better placed than other candidates to join".
"The point is we score high points in everything except the court," Drobnjak said concluding that "so there are additional harsher standards".
Drobnjak, whom the paper describes as a veteran diplomat, also said that he did not question the role of the UN tribunal, but that court "feeds indirectly into the anti-EU anti-sentiment". "A year ago, there was 75 percent support for the EU. Now people are tired of reading about the court in papers every day".