HDZ leader and Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said in his introduction that the Bologna Process was an important topic for Croatia and above party interests.
Sanader said the Bologna Process was inseparable from the Lisbon strategy, whose goal was to have united Europe, as an economy founded on knowledge, become competitive on the global level.
He said there was political consensus on the Bologna Process in Croatia, but that one of the difficulties was Croatia's inability to set aside sufficient budgetary funds for education and science given that it was still recovering from last decade's war. He underlined, however, that knowledge was important in the inevitable process of globalisation.
Education and Science Minister Dragan Primorac said creating a good higher education system was an important issue in the current implementation of the Bologna Process which would be addressed by ministers of Bologna Declaration signatory countries at a conference in Bergen, Norway in May.