{"id":28200,"date":"2013-06-14T12:32:00","date_gmt":"2013-06-14T09:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eliamep.lncdoo.com\/i-odysseia-tis-kroatias-oi-prooptikes-enos-neou-melous-tis-ee\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T12:33:01","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T09:33:01","slug":"i-odysseia-tis-kroatias-oi-prooptikes-enos-neou-melous-tis-ee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/croatias-odyssey-the-path-and-prospects-of-a-new-eu-member\/","title":{"rendered":"Croatia\u2019s Odyssey: The Path and Prospects of a new EU Member"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the 1st of July 2013, Croatia is set to become the 28th member of the EU after the successful closure of a prolonged\u00a0process of accession negotiations, which started back in March 2005. Two decades after the end of the Yugoslav wars,\u00a0and during a time when many in Western Europe grumble about the \u201creckless\u201d EU enlargement that goes on\u00a0autopilot, Croatia is believed to have implemented all of its commitments that would secure entry pass into the\u00a0European community. In fact, Croatia has gone through an often bumpy and exceptionally demanding road in order to\u00a0adopt standard institutional and administrative reforms, and settled a number of non-acquis issues raised by the\u00a0European Council, such as full cooperation with the ICTY over the prosecution, and later acquittal, of indicted with war\u00a0crimes fugitive general Ante Gotovina and special police force commander Mladen Markac. Furthermore, Croatia was\u00a0pressed to overcome a long-standing maritime border dispute with Slovenia in the Gulf of Piran, which in December\u00a02008 resulted in a temporary stalling of entry negotiations due to the Slovenian blockade.<\/p>\n

In a sudden turn of events, the European Commission\u2019s October 2012 progress report raised additional concerns over\u00a0the readiness of Croatia to enter the EU, and requested further efforts to be made in ten policy areas. Also, the
\nEuropean Commission had recently succumbed to grievances by the German Bundestag, which raised a few additional,\u00a0though minor points for Croatia to accomplish swiftly before its accession in July. Previous issues over Romania and\u00a0Bulgaria\u2019s accession process created a worrying precedent for Europe\u2019s cohesion, which in turn raised concerns over\u00a0Croatia\u2019s EU entry to alarming levels. In an effort to minimize post-accession turbulence, the Commission urged the\u00a0Croatian government to undertake imminent action to improve the efficiency, transparency, and accountability of the\u00a0judicial system. The Commission pinpointed the necessity to strengthen the pursuit of cases related to war-crimes, to\u00a0ensure the effective prosecution of those involved with cases related to organized crime and to reinforce legislative\u00a0measures in the fight against corruption. Furthermore, the Commission highlighted a series of outstanding political\u00a0matters that required additional reform, including the protection of minorities, the safe return of refugees, and the\u00a0protection of human rights.\u00a0In the end, Croatia has ultimately succeeded in making these changes and to pass\u00a0through this process of constant adjustment and review, obtaining a final accession date.<\/p>\n

Author<\/strong>: Pavlos Koktsidis –\u00a0Research Associate, South-East Europe Programme, ELIAMEP, Greece<\/p>\n

ELIAMEP Briefing Notes 18\/ 2013: Croatia\u2019s Odyssey: The Path and Prospects of a new EU Member<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the 1st of July 2013, Croatia is set to become the 28th member of the EU after the successful closure of a prolonged\u00a0process of accession negotiations, which started back in March 2005. Two decades after the end of the Yugoslav wars,\u00a0and during a time when many in Western Europe grumble about the \u201creckless\u201d EU […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28201,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[492,102],"tags":[209],"program":[23],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28200"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28200"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52905,"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28200\/revisions\/52905"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28200"},{"taxonomy":"program","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eliamep.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/program?post=28200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}