In the article "Croatia could become the new Greece," the German tabloid notes that Greece and Croatia are on the verge of bankruptcy due to poor management and failure to implement reforms, referring to an alleged "confidential" analysis by the European Commission which notes that the economic situation in Croatia has dramatically deteriorated and that the government had virtually not done anything in reference to five of eight key points to reduce the deficit.
Referring to the article, Grcic said that "there is nothing new with regard to the recommendations the European Commission has made to Croatia and which we have been working on for more than a year now, everything else is a subjective opinion of Bild's reporter."
He stressed that he doesn't think the situation in Croatia is dramatic and that it's nowhere near that in Greece. "We have much more favourable parameters and when it comes to the deficit and the public debt, and what is most important is that we've managed, through implementing reforms, to come to a phase of economic growth which is something we all expected after six years of recession. That is the best way to be even more resolute in dealing with the deficit and the public debt as that is the greatest challenge for this government and the one to follow," Grcic said.
He denied that there was any "confidential EC report on Croatia, except for regular progress reports on new EU members which should be put to the Commission on June 25 or 26.
"A progress report is put together after two years of regular membership for every new member state, which in this case is late June for Croatia and that is a regular reporting process... Croatia was ranked 8th of the 28 members states with regard to implementing reforms and it was assessed that reforms have been completed in two areas... Not one EU country managed to complete reforms in less than five or six years," Grcic said.