Three years ago, support for the country's admission to the EU was around 70 percent, but in March 2005 it fell to 34 percent, when the opening of EU membership talks was postponed. When the negotiations were opened in October that year, support exceeded 60 percent, but some 8-10 percent was lost due to the case of General Ante Gotovina, and several percentage points were lost due to a recent dispute between Italian President Giorgio Napolitano and Croatian President Stjepan Mesic, Degert said at the event "Networking and information policies in EU communication strategies".
According to figures released by the EC Delegation, 38 percent of Croatians are currently in favour of the country's admission to the European bloc, and 52 percent are against.
Our goal is to stabilise the support at the highest possible level and to replace emotions with a rational approach based on facts about what EU membership will bring to Croatia and what Croatia will bring to the EU, the EC official said.
Addressing the event, Gisella Gauggel-Robinson, head of the Unit for Information and Publication, DG Enlargement said that oscillations in support to a candidate's entry to the union were common.
She said that backing would not rise on its own and that efforts should be made to increase support for EU membership.
She added that the civil sector could play an important role in that field.
The debate gathered representatives of the media, nongovernmental organisations, and institutions of higher education.