The EC has learned of Wednesday's news conference at which representatives of the Croatian authorities clearly stated that data and information given to the EC in the process of screening were correct. We conduct accession talks with candidate countries in the spirit of trust and in good faith and expect them, in case an error is detected, to inform the EC of it immediately, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn's spokeswoman Krisztina Nagy told reporters in Brussels.
The Science and Education Ministry yesterday refuted media allegations that data regarding education had been falsified for negotiations with the European Union, underlining that the accession negotiations were being used to score political points. These media reports were dismissed also by Croatia's chief negotiator in EU membership talks, Vladimir Drobnjak.
"The task force has done a big and difficult job and it is furthest from its mind to embellish or exaggerate figures or to play with the negotiations and Croatia's reputation," the chief of the negotiating task force for education, Pero Lucin, told the press.
Chief negotiator Drobnjak said in Brussels that "all data that are given to the EC in the process of screening are given in good faith and following a careful examination of data provided by relevant state bodies". "Croatia is not lying to the EC," he added.
The media yesterday quoted Gvozden Flego, a member of the education task force and a minister in the previous government, as saying that the science ministry's budget for this year was lower than the 4.4 per cent of GDP stated, or about two billion kuna lower than the figure given in Brussels.
Flego also claimed that only 3,900 professors were on the ministry's payroll and that there were 45 students to one professor.