Croatia ready for EU

[Dinko]

Croatia aims to be ready for EU membership by 2007
By Judy Dempsey in Brussels
Published: October 10 2003 5:00
Croatia could be ready to join the European Union by 2007, the same time as Bulgaria and Romania, said Ivica Racan, Croatian prime minister whose social democratic party is seeking re-election next month.


If so, it would be a remarkable turnaround for a country plunged into civil war in the early 1990s, with its senior military staff indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Diplomats said Croatian membership could send a clear signal to the rest of the western Balkans, still plagued by corruption, weak governments and unresolved political relations.

Mr Racan said Croatia was doing everything possible to co-operate with the war crimes tribunal and to speed up the return of Serb refugees forced to flee the war.

The EU has made these the two key issues for achieving candidate status. In particular, Britain and the Netherlands said they would not ratify Croatia's candidate status until it handed over General Ante Gotovina, indicted by the tribunal for war crimes. As commander of the Split military district, Gen Gotovina launched an offensive in 1995 aimed at re-taking the Krajina region, held by Serbs.

Mr Racan insisted he "did not know" about the whereabouts of Gen Gotovina. "I want to be helped by those who know [where he might be]," he told a small group of journalists before handing over documents required by the member states before they consider offering Croatia candidate status. "We need to have the issue of war crimes solved regardless of who committed them."

Croatia is facing criticism from other EU countries, particularly Italy, for taking unilateral action designed to create a special environmental zone in the Adriatic that challenges Slovenia's territorial rights. Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief, yesterday said "the Adriatic should be protected in a consensual manner".

Mr Racan's centre left coalition was catapulted into power in January 2000 when the hardline nationalist HDZ party founded by the late Franjo Tudman, was ousted.

[Anja]

The question in here is not whether Croatia is ready...
Of course it is ready, I mean, already...
The question is what Croatia is going to gain by being an EU member!
I am starting to think that by being an EU memeber Croatia will lose more than it will gain..
It is just my instict, I do not know of any statistics..
What do you think?

[splico]

Croatia is ready (or at least pretending to be ready) for EU. But, problem is that EU is not ready for Croatia.

In today 'Slobodna Dalmacija' ( www.slobodnadalmacija.hr/20031015/index.asp ) news from Bruxelles is - Croatia will join EU at same time as Bosnia . Can you imagine that? Is that going to be this century?

[Nick]

I would say that Croatia is no less ready than most of the crop of countries due to join in the next intake.
However, because some countries have decided to make an example of them in their pursuit of war criminals, in reality they membership may well be delayed beyond any date set by the Croat goverment.
Corrupton was cited as another reason why Croatia's entrance was delayed, but this can surely be no worse than most of the current entrants and indeed some prominent EU members themselves.
After Tony Blairs recent fiasco surrounding Iraq, the UK goverment is hardly in a position to be criticising other countries about dishonesty!!
With the EU, it's basically swings and roundabouts. Some things will improve, others will get worse, either you accept it or stay clear. As Racan seems to be determined to get into the EU I suspect it will be the former for the Croat people. Then the next fun decision will be the Euro after EU membership.