Post by Tom on Oct 15, 2003 13:35:47 GMT
Analysis: Croatia's rocky road to Europe
By Gareth Harding
UPI Chief European Correspondent
Published 10/14/2003 2:31 PM
View printer-friendly version
BRUSSELS, Belgium, Oct. 14 (UPI) -- If any country symbolizes Eastern Europe's head-long rush from dictatorship to democracy, planned economy to free-market society and civil strife to fragile peace, it is Croatia.
Less than a decade ago, the western Balkan country was in the grip of a bloody civil war, five years ago Zagreb had still to regain full control of the rebel Serb enclave of eastern Slavonia, and just four years ago -- under the leadership of nationalist s.man Franjo Tudjman -- it was a pariah state shunned by the Western world.
Today, peace reigns, democracy has taken root, the economy is growing faster than almost any other country in Europe, tourists are flooding back to the Adriatic coast in droves and Croatia is firmly on the path toward European Union and NATO membership.
"Democratic Croatia has no other option but to become a member of the European Union," Prime Minister Ivica Racan told United Press International on a visit to Brussels last week.
The EU's top brass appears to agree.
Says EU Foreign Relations Commissioner Chris Patten: "The map of the European Union will not be complete until the countries of the western Balkans are included on it."
At a summit in northern Greece in June, EU leaders pledged that all five countries in the region -- Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, and Serbia and Montenegro -- would one day become members of the ever-expanding bloc.
But it is Croatia that has made the most rapid progress toward becoming the EU's 28th member. Ten mostly former communist states are due to join the current 15 next May, with Bulgaria and Rumania expected to enter in 2007.
After the death of Tudjman in 1999, Racan's five-party coalition made EU membership the government's No. 1 goal. For three years, Croatia has been busy aligning its laws with those made in Brussels and in March it formally presented its EU membership application.
The European Commission, the EU's powerful executive body, sent Zagreb a list of 4,500 questions about its readiness to join the club. The answers, all 10,000 pages of them, were presented by Racan Thursday.
"Without false modesty, this is an encyclopedia of modern-day Croatia," the former communist leader told a small group of foreign correspondents before a meeting with commission chief Romano Prodi.
The commission has promised to deliver a verdict on Croatia's application by March, paving the way for membership talks to begin next fall if EU leaders give Zagreb the thumbs up.
The commission has serious misgivings about some of the government's policies. In its latest report on the country, the EU executive says Zagreb's cooperation with the war crimes tribunal in The Hague remains "lukewarm," economic reforms are "slow," the media and judiciary are subject to state intervention and only "limited progress" has been made in enabling Serbs to return to their homes.
But in an interview with the Financial Times newspaper on the eve of Racan's visit, Enlargement Commissioner Gunter Verheugen gave the s.est hint yet that the EU executive would be ready to welcome the former Yugoslav republic in the not-too-distant future.
"Croatia would increase the credibility of our democratization process in the whole region," said Verheugen, adding that Zagreb would not have to wait in the EU's antechamber while the other Balkan countries played catch-up.
The EU's current 15 members, swamped by the challenges of admitting 10 new states and penning the bloc's first-ever constitution, are less gung-ho about Croatia's membership prospects. Two, Britain and the Netherlands, have even refused to start entry talks until Zagreb hands over fugitive Gen. Ante Gotovina.
The third-most wanted man in the Balkans after Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, Gotovina is accused of killing 150 ethnic Serb civilians during a 1991 campaign.
The Hague tribunal's Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte has accused Croatian authorities of sheltering the suspected war criminal -- a charge strenuously denied by Racan.
"I don't know where Gotovina is right now," the premier told reporters in Brussels, adding: "I don't want Croatia to be the hostage of one man."
After a meeting with Del Ponte Monday, EU foreign ministers remained unconvinced by Racan's claims.
Ministers expressed their "deep concern that a number of countries and parties of the region were still failing to cooperate fully with the tribunal" and called on the former Yugolsav states to "intensify efforts" to bring Karadzic, Mladic and Gotovina to The Hague.
Racan said he still hoped Croatia would be able to join the EU alongside Bulgaria and Rumania in 2007, but given the bloc's notoriously slow decision-making procedures, this may be somewhat over-optimistic.
Most Brussels analysts believe that if Gotovina is handed over, membership talks could be wrapped up by the end of 2006 and Croatia could be welcomed as the club's 28th member in 2008.
After centuries of foreign domination, decades of control from Belgrade and years of conflict with its neighbors, most Croatians would probably not grumble about such a short delay.
Copyright © 2001-2003 United Press International
By Gareth Harding
UPI Chief European Correspondent
Published 10/14/2003 2:31 PM
View printer-friendly version
BRUSSELS, Belgium, Oct. 14 (UPI) -- If any country symbolizes Eastern Europe's head-long rush from dictatorship to democracy, planned economy to free-market society and civil strife to fragile peace, it is Croatia.
Less than a decade ago, the western Balkan country was in the grip of a bloody civil war, five years ago Zagreb had still to regain full control of the rebel Serb enclave of eastern Slavonia, and just four years ago -- under the leadership of nationalist s.man Franjo Tudjman -- it was a pariah state shunned by the Western world.
Today, peace reigns, democracy has taken root, the economy is growing faster than almost any other country in Europe, tourists are flooding back to the Adriatic coast in droves and Croatia is firmly on the path toward European Union and NATO membership.
"Democratic Croatia has no other option but to become a member of the European Union," Prime Minister Ivica Racan told United Press International on a visit to Brussels last week.
The EU's top brass appears to agree.
Says EU Foreign Relations Commissioner Chris Patten: "The map of the European Union will not be complete until the countries of the western Balkans are included on it."
At a summit in northern Greece in June, EU leaders pledged that all five countries in the region -- Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, and Serbia and Montenegro -- would one day become members of the ever-expanding bloc.
But it is Croatia that has made the most rapid progress toward becoming the EU's 28th member. Ten mostly former communist states are due to join the current 15 next May, with Bulgaria and Rumania expected to enter in 2007.
After the death of Tudjman in 1999, Racan's five-party coalition made EU membership the government's No. 1 goal. For three years, Croatia has been busy aligning its laws with those made in Brussels and in March it formally presented its EU membership application.
The European Commission, the EU's powerful executive body, sent Zagreb a list of 4,500 questions about its readiness to join the club. The answers, all 10,000 pages of them, were presented by Racan Thursday.
"Without false modesty, this is an encyclopedia of modern-day Croatia," the former communist leader told a small group of foreign correspondents before a meeting with commission chief Romano Prodi.
The commission has promised to deliver a verdict on Croatia's application by March, paving the way for membership talks to begin next fall if EU leaders give Zagreb the thumbs up.
The commission has serious misgivings about some of the government's policies. In its latest report on the country, the EU executive says Zagreb's cooperation with the war crimes tribunal in The Hague remains "lukewarm," economic reforms are "slow," the media and judiciary are subject to state intervention and only "limited progress" has been made in enabling Serbs to return to their homes.
But in an interview with the Financial Times newspaper on the eve of Racan's visit, Enlargement Commissioner Gunter Verheugen gave the s.est hint yet that the EU executive would be ready to welcome the former Yugoslav republic in the not-too-distant future.
"Croatia would increase the credibility of our democratization process in the whole region," said Verheugen, adding that Zagreb would not have to wait in the EU's antechamber while the other Balkan countries played catch-up.
The EU's current 15 members, swamped by the challenges of admitting 10 new states and penning the bloc's first-ever constitution, are less gung-ho about Croatia's membership prospects. Two, Britain and the Netherlands, have even refused to start entry talks until Zagreb hands over fugitive Gen. Ante Gotovina.
The third-most wanted man in the Balkans after Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, Gotovina is accused of killing 150 ethnic Serb civilians during a 1991 campaign.
The Hague tribunal's Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte has accused Croatian authorities of sheltering the suspected war criminal -- a charge strenuously denied by Racan.
"I don't know where Gotovina is right now," the premier told reporters in Brussels, adding: "I don't want Croatia to be the hostage of one man."
After a meeting with Del Ponte Monday, EU foreign ministers remained unconvinced by Racan's claims.
Ministers expressed their "deep concern that a number of countries and parties of the region were still failing to cooperate fully with the tribunal" and called on the former Yugolsav states to "intensify efforts" to bring Karadzic, Mladic and Gotovina to The Hague.
Racan said he still hoped Croatia would be able to join the EU alongside Bulgaria and Rumania in 2007, but given the bloc's notoriously slow decision-making procedures, this may be somewhat over-optimistic.
Most Brussels analysts believe that if Gotovina is handed over, membership talks could be wrapped up by the end of 2006 and Croatia could be welcomed as the club's 28th member in 2008.
After centuries of foreign domination, decades of control from Belgrade and years of conflict with its neighbors, most Croatians would probably not grumble about such a short delay.
Copyright © 2001-2003 United Press International