CROATIA

the road to UE

By: Oprisor Gilda 2nd Year, Group 935 Faculty of International Economic Relations

Croatiathe road to UE
Enlargement has been one of the EU's most successful foreign policies, yet has equally suffered from considerable opposition even from the beginning. French President Charles de Gaulle opposed British membership fearing US influence. A laster French President Franois Mitterrand opposed Greek, Spanish and Portuguese membership fearing that they were not ready and it would water the community down to a free trade area. The reasons for the first member states to apply, and for them to be accepted, were primarily economic while the second enlargement was more political. The southern Mediterranean countries had just emerged from dictatorships and wanted to secure their democratic systems through the EEC, while the EEC wanted to ensure the same thing and that their southern neighbours were stable and aligned to NATO. It has also been acknowledged that enlargement has its limits, the EU cannot expand endlessly. Former Commission President Romano Prodi favoured granting "everything but institutions" to the EU's neighbour states; allowing them to co-operate deeply while not adding strain on the EU's institutional framework. Any country that wishes to join the European Union (EU) must meet specific political and economic criteria and must incorporate all the EU's laws and standards into its national law. The process of preparing for Croatia's accession started in February 2003 when Croatia made its formal application for EU Membership. The European Commission examined Croatia's application and gave a positive opinion in 2004, recommending the opening of accession negotiations. In the same year the European Union granted Croatia the status of a candidate country. In 2005, accession negotiations started with the screening of Croatia's legislation to identify where modifications were needed to ensure compliance with EU norms and rules. Administrative capacity was analyzed in each sector, and an important set of reforms leading to alignment with EU law were kicked off in all the areas of accession negotiations. The accession negotiations were based on a new approach, with a stronger focus on the rule of law and strict conditions for both opening and closing the negotiating chapters. This approach helped to set the right priorities in all sectors, assisting Croatia to gradually comply with the requirements to become a fully prepared Member State.

Croatia profile

Facts

Full name: Republic of Croatia Population: 4.4 million (UN, 2010) Capital: Zagreb Area: 56,594 sq km (21,851 sq miles) Major language: Croatian Major religion: Christianity Life expectancy: 73 years (men), 80 years (women) (UN) Monetary unit: 1 kuna = 100 lipa Main exports: Machinery and transport equipment, clothing, chemicals GNI per capita: US $13,870 (World Bank, 2010) Internet domain: .hr International dialling code: +385

Croatia's declaration of independence in 1991 was followed by four years of war and the best part of a decade of authoritarian nationalism under President Franjo Tudjman. By early 2003 it had made enough progress in shaking off the legacy of those years to apply for EU membership, becoming the second former Yugoslav republic after Slovenia to do so. Croatia's EU accession talks were held up because the country's most prominent war crimes suspect, Gen Ante Gotovina, remained at large until 2005. Gen Gotovina was finally convicted by the UN War Crimes Tribunal in Hague in April 2011, and shortly after this, Croatia successfully completed its EU accession negotiations. At the time of President Tudjman's death in December 1999, the country was still in a parlous state. Its citizens suffered from government-backed attacks on their civil and political rights. The governing party, the HDZ, was mired in corruption and the economy was in severe difficulties. Presidential and parliamentary elections at the beginning of 2000 ushered in politicians who pledged commitment to Croatia's integration into the European mainstream. The constitution was changed to shift power away from the president to the parliament. Croatia joined the World Trade Organization and pledged to open up its economy. Despite this, organized crime and mafia-linked violence continued to be a major concern, and the government had to demonstrate that it was serious about tackling the problem so as not to jeopardize its EU membership bid. A dispute with Slovenia over sea and land borders dating back to the break-up of Yugoslavia also threatened to derail Croatia's journey to EU membership until June 2010, when a Slovene referendum cleared this outstanding obstacle to Croatia's EU accession. The country's EU accession treaty was finally signed in December 2011, after years of tortuous negotiations. President: Ivo Josipovic Social Democrat Ivo Josipovic was elected for a five-year term in January 2010. He pledged to fight corruption and help Croatia achieve EU membership.

The role of the president is largely ceremonial. He proposes the prime minister but it is for parliament to approve the nomination. The president can dissolve parliament and call elections. Prime minister: Zoran Milanovic He was born in Zagreb in 1966 and after studying law at university embarked on a diplomatic career. In 1994, he went to Nagorno-Karabakh on a peace mission on behalf of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and was the first Croatian citizen to serve in this role. Zoran Milanovic became prime minister after his four-party centre-left coalition bloc defeated the conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), which had ruled the country for the previous eight years, in elections in December 2011. Riding a tide of popular anger over government corruption and economic stagnation, the Kukuriku ("cock-a-doodle-doo") bloc won 81 seats in the 151-seat national assembly. Mr. Milanovic's own Social Democratic Party (SDP) took 61 of those seats. Mr. Milanovic's chief election pledges were to revitalize the struggling economy and prepare Croatia for EU membership in 2013. The prime minister faces a tough challenge in his efforts to cut the budget deficit and rescue Croatia's credit rating, which by the end of 2010 had deteriorated to just a notch above junk status. His government will have to adopt stringent austerity measures if it is to avoid a further downgrade in the country's credit rating, revive industry and attract foreign investment. New jobs are vitally needed if unemployment - which by October 2011 had climbed to nearly 18% - is to be brought down. Zoran Milanovic joined the SDP in 1999 and became the party's president in June 2007, in an election that followed the death of the party's founder, veteran Croatian politician Ivica Racan, two months earlier. He then led the SDP into the November 2007 general election, which it narrowly lost.

Media
Croatia's media enjoy a high degree of independence. However, Reporters Without Borders said in 2009 that aspects of Serbo-Croat relations were off-limits for the media. Croatian Radio-Television, HRT, is the state-owned public broadcaster and is financed by advertising and a licence fee. Public TV is the main source of news and information. National commercial networks and dozens of private local TV stations compete for viewers. Croatia hopes to complete a transition to digital TV broadcasting by 2011. The cable and satellite market is well developed. The radio landscape comprises three national public networks, four national commercial channels, regional public channels and more than 130 local and regional radios. In the newspaper sector, there are six national and four regional dailies. Austrian and German concerns have large stakes in the print media. Around 2.4 million Croatians are online (Internetworldstats.com, 2010). There are an estimated 22,000 registered websites in Croatia. The telecommunications sector is the most developed in the region. EU-Croatia trade has substantially increased since the opening of the EU market under the Autonomous Trade Measures in 2000 and the trade provisions of the

Stabilization and Association Agreement in 2002. In 2009 EU-Croatia trade was at 14.024 billion, which constitutes 65.3% of the total trade. EU-imports from Croatia totaled 4.386 billion while EU exports to Croatia reached 10.735 billion. The main source of export revenues are primarily composed of industrial goods (68.3%), including principally machinery (29.2% - of which transport equipment 9.4%), textiles products and clothing (respectively 1.3% and 7.5%), and chemical products (7.7%). The Croatian imports from the EU in 2009 were mainly industrial goods (77.3%) including machinery (31.8% - of which transport equipment 10.5%), chemical products (14.5%) and textile products and clothing (2.5% and 2.8%). In 2009 EU foreign direct investment (FDI) totaled 1.875 billion (4.1% of Croatia's GDP) including 1.842 billion from EU 27 (98%). On Friday the 9th of December Croatia signed the accession treaty to the EU with aims to become a member on the 1st of July 2013. There is still a national referendum to take place and a vote by the members which any EU state could veto. In the late 19th century, someone asked Bismarck what would cause the next great European war. Some damn thing in the Balkans, he presciently answered. Today, events in that region are no less consequential if we remember that Greece, now roiling global markets, is also a Balkan state. The news of the potential 28th member may have fallen through the cracks of the media coverage, as Croatia signed the morning after the 27 member countries battled through the night to save the Euro. This unfortunate timing has led to some saying that it is the wrong time to bring in a country which will cause further tension to the economy. The decision has been called a disaster waiting to happen by Forbes magazine. There are two main concerns about Croatias membership. These concerns are its economy and the rife corruption that tars the countrys image. The economy was one of the slowest in the Balkans to recover from recession and unemployment stands at 20%. The corruption is wide spread and seen as the norm. There have been police officers turn a blind eye to speeding motorists who slip them a 20 euro note whilst former Prime Minister, Ivo Sanader, is on trial for corruption. The corruption needs to be the first thing to go. Foreign investors from across the Atlantic are too afraid to do business in the Balkans for fear of slipping under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the same goes for UK businesses which must now operate under the Bribery Act 2010. Without foreign investment, Croatia cannot begin reviving its economy. The EU has given billions to aid reform in the country but with top level corruption amongst politicians the money has been spent in mystery. One beacon of hope is that the recent general election meant the centre right party, the Croatian Democratic Union, which has ruled for the majority of Croatias independence was replaced with the centre-left Social Democrat Party, who it is hoped will begin reforms. Croatian people tend to support accession though the supporting majority has fallen over the years as they no longer see membership as the ticket to economic stability it once was; however, the referendum is expected to return a yes vote of around 60%. The rest of the Balkans aspires to join the EU but it will be many years before significant progress is made. Serbias progress has been postponed as although Boris Tadics leadership looks to the West, Serbias failure to maintain peace and order at their southern borders with Kosovo this summer has worried the EU.

Yet the tiny state of Montenegro, natively known as Crna Gora (the black mountains) where the population is under 700,000, has already been given candidate status and begins negotiations soon. Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia have also applied but it is likely their efforts will be slow and laboured. Bosnia is still blighted by a widely acknowledged incompetent political system. The presidency is rotated with a Bosniak, a Croatian and a Serbian to acknowledge the tense ethnic splits in the country. This way of governing is inefficient and decision making is slow. The Bosnian people have little faith in politics and rely on their own efforts to improve standards of living. When a neighbourhood wants tarmaced roads they raise funds amongst themselves to pay to the council. With a stable political system Bosnia could attract foreign investment and a proper infrastructure and vastly improved public transport system would lend a hand in increasing tourism to this often overlooked corner of Europe. There will continue to be criticisms but these countries need reform and the appeal of EU membership may be the very thing that pushes the Balkans to clean up their governments, attract foreign investors, improve their human rights records and as a result put an end to many unhappy years. This past week, members of the European Parliament pressed for amendments to the resolution on Croatia: The report: Romanian Christian Democrats Monica Luisa Macovei and Traian Ungureanu called on Croatia to show convincing results in the selection and appointment of judges and prosecutors based on uniform, transparent and objective criteria. Bulgarian Christian Democrat Nadezda Neinski called on the Croatian government to continue with reforms to increase the transparency of the financing of political parties. Keeping Balkans on the European track Concluding the EUCroatian accession negotiations by 30 June has been the most important priority of the Hungarian Presidency. At the end of May, Prime Minister Viktor Orbn called the breaking of the negotiations a mistake. The Prime Minister then said that delaying Croatias accession could have serious consequences. If no result is achieved, which could keep Balkan countries on the European track, then we will be risking the regions stability. If we cannot offer a real perspective, then we will lose face, Mr Orbn said. Earlier, the Hungarian head of government said that Croatia may be the model used for the entire Western Balkan region. The countrys accession may prove that the European perspective is realistic for the Western Balkans. The region can be stabilized, and by none other than the EU, the Hungarian head of government pointed out, in the joint meeting, which were participated by MEPs and representatives of national parliaments of EU Member States and Western Balkan countries, on 14 April. In the middle of June, towards the end of the accession talks, the Hungarian Minister for Foreign Affairs stated that the accession of Croatia would have a magical effect on the rest of the countries of the Western Balkans. He said that the achievements of Croatia have also re-energized the efforts of other countries. If you only think of Serbia, it is quite clear that they have also made a push forward. This is the magic of the process. They take the message, and take the energy and then react, Martonyi said.

A lot more is at stake. There is a delicate global balance in this world. If nations like Croatia play a larger role on the international stage without stepped-up anticorruption initiatives, that balance will be strained beyond endurance.

Bibliography
http://www.forbes.com/sites/richardlevick/2011/10/27/croatia-in-the-eu-a-disaster-waitingto-happen http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13725558 http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/candidate-countries/croatia/index_en.htm http://www.euractiv.com/enlargement/eu-croatia-relations-linksdossier-188293