The vice president of the European Commission and European Union commissioner for justice, freedom and security was speaking at a presentation of the achievements and objectives of Croatia's judiciary and home affairs in the process of drawing closer to the EU. Attending the presentation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration was Prime Minister Ivo Sanader and numerous senior officials.
Building an administrative structure to carry out reform is the essence of everything so there is a lot of work ahead for Croatia because experience with new EU countries has shown that judicial reform and the fight against corruption and organised crime, as very sensitive areas, should begin early and be strongly pursued, said Frattini.
Every level of state administration must have zero tolerance to corruption. No one is above the law and everyone must be liable to disciplinary measures, including judges, said Frattini, himself a judge.
He underlined that the Croatian government must give the European Commission concrete figures which would show that reform results were possible and positive.
Frattini said the justice minister informed him today that Croatia had achieved an impressive success last year by increasing by more 100% the number of court proceedings against corruption suspects. He added, however, that only a few people in Europe knew this.
Prime Minister Sanader thanked Frattini for his praise of Croatia's achievements in negotiations on policy chapters within Frattini's competence as well as for pointing out what needed to be done. Sanader said Croatia was aware of the challenges ahead.
"If Croatia wants to become an EU member for the benefit of its citizens, and it does, then we must eradicate the feeling of helplessness citizens feel before state institutions," said Sanader. "The fight against corruption is the fight for eradicating this feeling of helplessness and inequality."
The government has already taken a series of steps to make all public administration services transparent through projects such as e-Croatia project, Hitro.hr and others leading to the ultimate goal of avoiding any contact between citizens and the public administration.