The Defence Ministry's State Secretary, Mate Raboteg informed the Sabor that by 2015 the armed forces should consist of no more than 16,000 active military personnel, 2,000 civilian staff and as many volunteers and up to 6,000 contractual reservists.
These objectives are to be accomplished by 2009 by which time all preconditions for conversion to an all-volunteer military should be met, such as suspension of conscription and introduction of volunteering for service, Raboteg said.
Under the plan, the present organisation of the armed forces in the three branches: the army, the air force and the navy, would be preserved and a support command would be established.
Some major projects will include equipping the ground forces with state-of-the-art wheeled armoured vehicles and purchasing combat aircraft and helicopters for the air force and multipurpose patrol vessels for the navy.
Croatia is planning to increase the number of its troops engaged in international peace missions to up to eight percent of its overall ground forces strength.
Key factors for the implementation of the plan are to ensure Gross Domestic Product growth and about two percent of GDP for defence spending by 2010.
The number of facilities possessed by the army will be reduced. The Croatian Armed Forces currently possess 355 buildings and the plan envisages that the army will retain 218 while the remaining 117 facilities are to be used for economic purposes.
During the debate, most parties said they would support the long-term development plan, but some MPs warned that the authorities had been delaying the reform for years and that the weaponry and equipment were out-of-date.
The Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) said that it was not going to endorse the plan. Its MP Zeljko Pecek explained that the HSS believed that the plan was tailored to meet the requests of NATO and the European Union rather than the country's needs.