Participants in today's event agreed that Croatia had set up a satisfactory legislative framework and raised the public awareness of the need to combat corruption, but they called for more resolute steps in the struggle.
Giving an overview of the TIH work in the last 10 years, the organisation's president Zorislav Antun Petrovic pointing out TIH's contribution to the improvement of the legislative framework and to raising the awareness of the public that corruption must be uprooted in order not to thwart the society's development.
According to Petrovic, Croatians cite corruption as the second gravest problem in society after unemployment.
Addressing the event, President Ivo Josipovic spoke about the importance of the cooperation between the authorities and civil society in the anti-corruption drive.
Josipovic said that after being exposed to what he said mega-corruption in the 1990s, Croatia was now at a crucial moment when it could show and prove how efficient it could be in handling corruption.
The president said he was optimistic about the continuation of the clamp-down on corruption, supporting the political will of both the government and the parliament to prove that there were no untouchables in the anti-corruption drive.
Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor reaffirmed her cabinet's commitment to uprooting corruption and called on all political parties to demonstrate their readiness to cope with corruption regardless of political background of those involved in corruption.
PM Kosor thanked TIH for "persistent and patient work".
She vowed the relentless anti-corruption campaign not only for the sake of Croatia's European Union membership talks but also for the country's own sake.