"The establishment of a legal, financial and policy framework has given civil society development a strong boost. Media institutions and human rights organisations have now also matured to the point that they can competently assume the Mission's watchdog and advisory role in the near future," Fuentes said at a press conference, presenting a five-year report on Croatia.
The report will be presented to the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on Thursday.
Fuentes said that it was important to continue the process of refugee return and to find a formula for reconciliation. He noted that it was an expensive programme for Croatia, which required 4 billion kuna (approximately 550 million euros) annually, and added that authorities should work on the prevention of incidents.
He cited education as the main problem of national minorities in Croatia, notably separate education as is the case in eastern Slavonia. According to the OSCE official, the Czech, German and Italian minorities are a good example of minorities having no problems with integration into Croatian society, unlike the Serb minority in eastern Slavonia.
Speaking of judicial reform, Fuentes mentioned a backlog of 1.5 million cases, stressing that corruption was the result of that problem.
Croatia faces no serious obstacles in EU membership talks after it achieved full cooperation with the Hague war crimes tribunal last year and the talks are progressing very well, he said.
Fuentes announced he would call on the Croatian government to continue with the Platform process, an ongoing consultation mechanism set up earlier this year to identify common objectives and check progress on a monthly basis.
"This negotiation process has proved to be a very effective tool in tackling issues important to both the Mission and the government," Fuentes said.
Fuentes said that there were plans to reduce the scope of the OSCE Mission by the end of the year and that the Mission would stay in Croatia much less than 10 years.
The OSCE official said he was pleased with the amendment of the Penal Code, which includes hate crime as an aggravating circumstance for all criminal offences.