Why croatia should be in the eu

Issues Projects Regions Blogs. Sign Up for Strategic Europe If you enjoyed reading this, subscribe for more! Thank you! Check your email for details on your request. Judy Dempsey. June 10, Recent Analysis From. Follow Us. By using this website, you agree to our cookie policy. Croatia eventually became a part of the EU on 1 July , ten years after the initial application.

However, it has now been confirmed that the country has passed its evaluation process and is set to join the open borders region in the near future.

European authorities have not yet given a specific date for Croatia to officially become part of the Schengen zone. It has been reported that Croatia will become a Schengen country before the end of It is also unclear whether Croatia will be part of the ETIAS visa waiver programme , which will be launched by the end of However, it is likely the country will require an European Travel Information and Authorization System from third-country travellers once the permit is in place.

The newly reached stance by the EU Commission results from the evaluations conducted between June and May Some of the directives that were assessed before greenlighting Croatia for Schengen had to do with implementing measures to maintain standards in the following areas:.

Croatia has long borders with non-EU countries such as Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro which makes it challenging to control immigration. Overnight member states independently and without agreement at the European level closed the Schengen borders to protect their territories and their citizens. States have limited or banned the export of medical equipment to other member states in order to secure enough medical supplies for their own citizens.

Some states have initiated overt campaigns of buying and selling only domestic products, while the free market has been put on hold. A similar fate was suffered by the key goals set by Croatia at the beginning of its EU presidency. Still, as the central event of its presidency, the Croatian government planned a summit in Zagreb, May , inviting all EU heads of governments and states.

The purpose was to use this meeting to highlight the need for the countries of the Western Balkans—North Macedonia and Albania in particular—to become members of the EU. In fact, the EU summit held in Zagreb was much more forthright in promising to enlarge and accept Western Balkan countries as its members than this one, held twenty years later.

It reaffirms the European perspective of the countries participating in the stabilization and association process and their status as potential candidates for membership in accordance with the Feira conclusions. It takes account of the situation of each country and is based on respect for the conditions defined by the Council on 29 April concerning democratic, economic and institutional reforms.

On the basis of these criteria, the Union proposes an individualized approach to each of these countries, the content of which appears in the Annex. The prospect of accession is offered on the basis of the provision of the Treaty on EU, respect for the criteria defined at the Copenhagen European Council in June and the progress made in implementing the stabilization and association agreements, in particular on regional cooperation.

Besides the hesitation and reluctance on the part of France and the Netherlands regarding the opening of accession talks voiced in October , another obstacle to EU enlargement to the Western Balkans is the state of democracy in those countries.

For example, according to the Freedom House study Nations in Transit , the level of democracy in the Western Balkans even regressed. The situation is similar in Serbia, which began membership negotiations in Both countries registered further declines. Source: Zselyke Csaky, Nations in Transit Paradoxically, studies have shown that countries that did not open membership negotiations achieved more progress in terms of democracy than those that met the conditions for accession. Still, recent developments in both countries have cast doubt on future progress.

Countries with this score are electoral democracies, but their democratic institutions are fragile and there are significant challenges in protecting political rights and civil liberties. It is interesting that Slovenia, as a consolidated democracy with a score of 5. According to the same study, Russia had a score of 1. The report also stated that Hungary, an EU member state with the level of a consolidated democracy and a score of 5. Despite years-long membership in the Union, part of the public in Eastern European countries is having trouble accepting the liberal features of democracy.

The process of accepting new members into the EU is plagued by challenges. It seems that there is at least some truth to the thesis that we are witnessing a play in which the EU is pretending to want to spread to the Western Balkans, while those countries are pretending to want to introduce reforms. However, not all countries in the region, or rather their general public, have the same attitude toward the EU.

The attitude that prevails among the general public in these countries, especially in Serbia, is Euro-indifference. There is no great opposition to accession, but not much enthusiasm either.

The accession is viewed as a process which cannot and should not be resisted, but one which depends entirely on the decisions of the EU central states.

This opinion is not baseless, but it does not account for individual responsibility of democratic and economic development. A possible solution can be found in renewing the process of negotiation and a long-term strengthening of democratic values through civil society, but also through the respective political institutions.

This is where it saw its foreign policy niche. Croatian diplomacy considers the opening of accession negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania in March to be the great success of its presidency.

Another accomplishment is the establishment of an EU fund for helping the Western Balkan countries fight against the crisis caused by the pandemic. The EU has earmarked a financial aid package of more than 3. It was stressed that the way in which the EU and the Western Balkans have been dealing with the pandemic is proof that challenges are easier to overcome together. Despite the disappointing conclusions for the Western Balkan states, the Zagreb Declaration of 6 May states that the EU is also a community of values.

In particular, item 7 of the Declaration emphasises the importance of democracy and the rule of law. The process of European integration was the answer to political conflicts within and between European countries. This process began even before the Cold War between the West and the East, which offered very different types of political orders and ideologies.

Augustin Palokaj is senior correspondent in Brussels for ' Jutarnji List ' , Croatia's biggest daily newspaper. This op-ed was first published in Bulgarian here. The European Commission confirmed that Croatia has fulfilled all necessary conditions. In two years' time, on 1 July , Croatia will formally become the 28 th EU member state, enlarging the Union with an additional 56, square kilometres and 4.

Of course some consider this a big success, since passing the finish line is always a success, even when you are late. I consider the Croatian accession talks to be a kind of combination of failure and success.

Even the most sceptical back in , when Croatia got its candidate status, would not have believed that membership would come only as late as mid Both sides are to blame. Croatia was not sincere and tried to cheat in its fight against corruption. The EU, which learned its lesson earlier particularly with Bulgaria and Romania, strengthened the conditions and was a tough teacher. But there was also reluctance within the EU, some tired of enlargement and others were sceptical about Croatia.