However, when it comes to a possibility for people of different sexual orientation to adopt children, the question of possible traumas children may undergo can be brought up, she said.

I do not think that there are any reasons not to give some additional rights to the LGBT population. However, one thing is to lay down the legislation, it is only the first step. Much work is needed to raise a level of tolerance in Croatia ... towards people of different sexual orientation," Opacic, who is the Minister of Social Welfare Policy and Youth, told Croatian reporters during her visit to Brussels, when she was asked to comment on Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic's statement that his cabinet was planning to prepare new legislation on same-sex partnerships.

Asked by reporters about a possibility for those partnerships to adopt children, Opacic said that she did not think that those people would be bad parents but the problem was that children from those partnerships would be additionally stigmatised in the Croatian society.