With a population of some 4.4 million, the country is uniquely shaped like a croissant, with an amazing history, as one of the few countries in that region never to be entirely conquered by the Turks. It also has a place in the history of clothing, being the origin of the necktie. Today, Croatia is on the verge of becoming the European Union’s 28th member-state.
Croatia began its membership talks on the same day as Turkey in October 2005. While Turkey is bogged down in a swamp of problems, Croatia is but a few steps away from sitting at the EU table. Of course, one cannot compare the two. One is small and the other massive. One has the backing of all 27 member-states, while the other does not. Croatia has reached the final phase of its negotiations, with 28 out of 35 negotiating chapters provisionally closed and with the conclusion of the talks now within reach.
Yet it has not all been smooth sailing for Croatia. Zagreb has encountered a number of obstacles along the way. Coming out the bloody war of the early 1990s, Croatia has had to face up to a number of extremely painful and sensitive realities in order to make it to the end of the EU road. This has included sending a number of former high-ranking military officials, which were seen by many in Croatia as national heroes, to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to face charges of war crimes. For several months Croatia was also at loggerheads with its neighbor, Slovenia, over its sea border. Slovenia used its veto to block Croatia’s entry talks for most of 2010 over the small Gulf of Piran, in the Adriatic Sea, in a border dispute that dated back to the violent breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991. Under pressure from other European countries, Slovenia finally signed up to a binding arbitrated settlement last September, and the issue was finally sorted out after Slovenia voted in a referendum for a negotiated settlement.
Furthermore, Croatia is still not home free as some last-minute reforms need to be accomplished before Zagreb enters the EU house. Indeed, last week the European Commission adopted an interim report on Croatia’s progress which, while congratulating the country on progress made, also called on Croatia to redouble its efforts on a number of issues where the closing benchmarks need to be met, including the judiciary, the fight against corruption and organized crime, fundamental rights, the protection of minorities and returning refugees and cooperation with the ICTY, if it wants to meet the target date of June for completing its negotiations.
On the judiciary there are two main areas where benchmarks are not met. In the first place the EU wants to see the new State Judicial Council and State Prosecutorial Council demonstrate real self-regulation and a good track record for recruiting and appointing judges and prosecutors. At the same time there is a need for Croatia to reduce the number “backlog” civil cases, some of which date back three years, as well tougher enforcement of previous decisions. The EU also remains concerned over the handling of war crimes as more needs to be done to properly investigate and prosecute war criminals. It is particularly important that there be no ethnic bias in the conduct of trials and in the final sentences.
On fundamental rights, Croatia has taken steps to improve the position of minorities, and provisions in the constitution on the rights of national minorities to representation in parliament have been strengthened. However, one of the remaining challenges is the employment of national minorities, and a plan is necessary to tackle the underrepresentation of minorities in the wider public sector. And while some progress has been achieved in settling the refugee issue, with substantial refugee returns in recent years, in particular from Serbia, where around 65,000 remain, some returnees have faced difficulties in obtaining housing and taking advantage of socioeconomic reintegration programs. It is therefore crucial that Croatia rapidly and fully implement the Housing Care Program.
And lastly, much deeper efforts are needed to fight corruption at all levels, including cases linked to the judiciary and public procurement.
The European Commission has given Croatia a “to do list” to help it overcome these remaining hurdles. However, the EU has also made it very clear that it will not accept half measures as there will be no post-accession monitoring mechanism such as were used for Romania and Bulgaria. The EU had its fingers burned, as even today, four years on, Romania and Bulgaria still do not meet EU norms in certain areas.
The EU’s policy for the Western Balkans has always been stabilization through integration. The EU has done all it can. The ball is now in Croatia’s court.
