In attendance were Justice Minister Vesna Skare Ozbolt, Supreme Court president Ivica Crnic, Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, Director of Legal Cooperation of the Council of Europe Roberto Lampioni and the head of the Delegation of the European Commission in Croatia, Jacques Wunenberger.
"As a candidate for joining the European Union, Croatia plans to entirely adjust its justice system to European standards, but also to citizens, which is one of the reasons we are marking today's date," Minister Skare Ozbolt said.
Naming all reform measures Croatia had taken, the justice minister said that all backlog cases should be solved by the start of 2007.
She said reforms were aimed at improving the situation in land books which would be organised in a unified electronic national data base. By 2008, EUR40 million will be invested in the project, financed by the World Bank and the European Commission, Skare Ozbolt said.
Stressing that the government entirely supported all reform measures, PM Sanader said reforms were important for Croatia's process of drawing closer to the EU. He stressed, however, the judiciary must be at the service of citizens whose cases must be solved within a constitutional deadline. He said the government would support reforms in the 2005 state budget.
He said that judicial reform, together with the return of refugees, restitution of their property and cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, was one of the three special conditions Croatia must meet prior to its admission to the EU.
Representatives of European institutions said the European Day of Civil Justice was introduced two years ago. They congratulated Croatia on the reforms. Wunenberger said Croatia still had a lot to do in order to achieve respect for civic rights.