Speaking at a conference on the role of political foundations in the democratisation of society, Sanader also said he expected the EU to settle its internal issues and them not to be an obstacle to Croatia's accession.
He recalled that 10 years had passed since Croatia joined the Council of Europe and one year since EU entry negotiations were launched, which he said showed that evident progress had been made. He also recalled that the screening of the adjustment of Croatia's legislation to European standards would wrap up soon.
Sanader said foundations should have a leading role in promoting democracy, the rule of law and development of political culture.
The conference was jointly organised by Zaklada Hrvatskog Drzavnog Zavjeta (ZHDZ), a foundation of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party, and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.
Sanader said the two foundations had to show that serving others in political engagement was worthwhile and that sacrifices paid off. He also underlined the importance of as many young people as possible engaging in the work of foundations and in politics.
"We cannot settle to hopelessness, depression and pessimism, and the future should not only dreamed about but realised too," Sanader said. He underlined that profit must not be the only criterion in the globalisation process, which he said was not bypassing Croatia, and that Croatia must be a welfare state as well.
Sanader said Croatia's task in transition was twice as hard as that of the other countries which had undergone it, because of an imposed war, which he added called for working faster and better today, but not at the expense of quality.
ZHDZ director Srecko Pusina said this foundation's task was to strengthen political culture and the culture of dialogue, build a democratic society and a law-based and democratic state in market economy conditions.
The director of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation's Croatian and Slovene branches, Christian Schmitz, said foundations were supplements to the state education system and an important element of encouraging young and talented people. He added foundations should refrain from openly supporting any political options during election campaigns.
German parliamentarian Klaus Peter Willsch said he would talk with European partners so that the scepticism about further EU enlargement would not affect Croatia but those countries to join after it.
I believe that together we can achieve the goal of having Croatia join the EU, Willsch said, adding he was confident that Croatia had a possibility to shape the concept of joining the EU so that this could occur as soon as possible.
The new German Ambassador to Croatia, Hans Jochen Peters, also gave a talk.