"After the coming parliamentary elections, regardless of their outcome, I will ask all politicians and political parties that support Croatia's EU membership to take part in a big pro-European campaign to last a month or a month and a half," Josipovic said in Zagreb on Monday, at a conference on the status of Croatian workers after Croatia joins the EU.
The latest surveys carried out by the Ipsos Puls agency show that if a referendum on Croatia's EU entry were to take place today, 58 percent of citizens would vote for Croatia's EU entry, while 31 percent would vote against. Those 31 percent are mostly afraid of the unknown, Josipovic said, adding that pro-European politicians and parties should help those voters overcome their fear.
He went on to say that after Croatia's EU accession, nothing dramatic would happen on the labour market and that there would be no mass departures of workers from Croatia.
Surveys show that only one percent of Croatia's economically active population think about leaving the country, while in the EU, 2-5 percent of employees work outside their home country.
"We cannot be satisfied with the current situation on the Croatian labour market considering high unemployment figures, notably among young people, and big regional differences, Josipovic said, adding that the next government and trade unions would have to define a more flexible employment policy without essentially restricting labour rights.
The State Secretary for European Integration, Andrej Plenkovic, also addressed the conference, saying that in the process of EU entry talks, Croatia's labour legislation had been adjusted to the benefit of workers, citing as an example longer holidays.
Upon entry into the European labour market, Croatian workers will be able to compete in a market where 30 million jobs are created annually, said Plenkovic.
The two-day conference, entitled "Croatia in the EU: What workers get and what they lose", was organised by the SSSH trade union federation and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.