2013 enlargement of the European Union

Accession of Croatia to the European Union
Status	Candidate
Application Screened & negotiations commence
Negotiations Chapters closed 4
Memberships & Treaties Association Agreement Economic and monetary policy Travel Energy Foreign and military policy Human rights and international courts International Court of Justice (ICJ)
Impact (27+1) Population 446,828,803 Area 4,233,262 km2 1,634,472 mi2 HDI 0.896 GDP (PPP) $25.399 trillion GDP per capita (PPP) $56,928 GDP $17.818 trillion GDP per capita $39,940 Gini 30.0 Official Languages 24

Croatia applied for European Union membership in 2003, and the European Commission recommended making it an official candidate in early 2004. Candidate country status was granted to Croatia by the European Council (the EU's heads of government) in mid-2004. The entry negotiations, while originally set for March 2005, began in October that year, also launching the screening process. Croatia is expected to join in 2010, but some doubt has been cast over EU enlargement following the Irish rejection of the Lisbon Treaty in a referendum.

After Slovenia, Croatia has recovered best from the break-up of the former Yugoslavia and so hopes to become the second former Yugoslav republic to become a member. It has a stable market economy and it is ahead of EU member states such as Poland, Bulgaria and Romania when it comes to economic performance.

Croatia's membership bid has been made possible due to the reinforcement of the country's institutions, electoral reform, increases in funding for the country's Constitutional Court and Ombudsman, and improvements in minority rights and the return and integration of refugees, which facilitated the closure of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's Croatian Mission in late 2007.

Issues of dispute

ICTY cooperation

The flag of Croatia and the European flag, on a building of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European integration, in Zagreb

Croatia has had to extradite several of its citizens to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), an issue that was often contentious in domestic politics.

Croatia's relations with the court had continuously been cited by the EU officials as something that required further improvement. Ratification of the EU Stabilisation and Association Agreement with Croatia had been stalled because of this.

The European Council, after its summit of December 20, 2004, set the following March 17 as the date to start entry negotiations, provided that Croatia continued to cooperate fully with the ICTY. On March 16, 2005 – the day before talks were to begin – the EU postponed the commencement of negotiations, because the ICTY prosecution assessed the Croatian efforts to capture the fugitive general Ante Gotovina (indicted by the ICTY for war crimes and crimes against humanity, but at large since 2001) as neither timely nor sufficient.

On December 7, 2005 Spanish Police finally arrested Ante Gotovina with the help of the Spanish and Croatian government on the Spanish island of Tenerife, located in the Canary Islands. He was brought to The Hague to be tried for war crimes. With the arrest of Ante Gotovina this issue seems to be now resolved, and entry negotiations have began anew, after the certification of ICTY chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte that Croatia now fully cooperates with the ICTY.

Border disagreements

See also: Foreign relations of Croatia § Slovenia

Croatia must also contend with long-standing border issues with Slovenia – a series of border disputes could yet threaten Slovenia's support for Croatia's accession, but good trade relations have thus far precluded this.

Land ownership

See also: Foreign relations of Croatia § Italy

Free acquisition of real estate by foreigners is a sensitive issue in Croatia. This matter particularly concerns Italians, especially in Istria. While it has strong cultural and historic ties with Italy, the events surrounding World War II, when Istria changed hands between the Kingdom of Italy and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, are more pertinent to the current issues. Numerous Italian politicians have expressed their discontent concerning the current inability of Italians to purchase land in Croatia, considering it discriminatory treatment, and stating that this issue should be resolved as soon as possible.

Croatia denies discrimination, indicating that Croatian legislation provides for the same treatment of all EU citizens concerning this issue. In mid-2006 Croatia and Italy agreed, and now Italian citizens may purchase land in Croatia, and Croatian citizens may purchase land in Italy. The same kind of measures, concerning this issue, have been employed by many new EU member countries before their own accession to the EU. Examples of this include Slovenia, Slovakia, Poland, and especially Malta.

Negotiation progress

See also: Enlargement of the European Union § Progress of future enlargements

Acquis chapter Progress 1. Free Movement of Goods o 2. Freedom of Movement for Workers o 3. Right of Establishment & Freedom to provide Services o 4. Free Movement of Capital fs 5. Public Procurement fs 6. Company Law o 7. Intellectual Property Law o 8. Competition Policy fs 9. Financial Services o 10. Information Society & Media o 11. Agriculture & Rural Development fs 12. Food safety, Veterinary & Phytosanitary Policy fs 13. Fisheries fs 14. Transport Policy o 15. Energy o 16. Taxation fs 17. Economic & Monetary Policy o 18. Statistics o

Acquis chapter Progress 19. Social Policy & Employment2 o 20. Enterprise & Industrial Policy x 21. Trans-European Networks o 22. Regional Policy & Coordination of Structural Instruments fs 23. Judiciary & Fundamental Rights fs 24. Justice, Freedom & Security fs 25. Science & Research x 26. Education & Culture x 27. Environment fs 28. Consumer & Health Protection o 29. Customs Union o 30. External Relations x 31. Foreign, Security & Defence Policy fs 32. Financial Control o 33. Financial & Budgetary Provisions o 34. Institutions - 35. Other Issues -

² Including anti-discrimination and equal opportunities for men and women.

(brackets): expected date	situation of policy area at the start of membership negotiations (late 2005).
s - screening of the chapter fs - finished screening o - open chapter x - provisionally closed chapter	non-acquis chapter - nothing to adopt   no major difficulties expected   further efforts needed	considerable efforts needed   very hard to adopt   current situation totally incompatible with EU acquis

Timeline

Date	Event
October 29, 2001	Croatia signs the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA)
February 21, 2003	Formal application for membership submitted
October 9, 2003	Croatia submits answers to the Commission's Questionnaire
April 20, 2004	European Commission replies to the answers with a positive opinion (Avis)
June 18, 2004	Croatia receives official candidate status
December 20, 2004	European Council sets the date for the entry negotiations to begin March 17, 2005
February 1, 2005	SAA comes into force
March 16, 2005	Negotiations postponed
October 3, 2005	The beginning of negotiations
October 20, 2005	Beginning of the screening process
June 12, 2006	Opening and closing of the Science & Research chapter of the Acquis communautaire
June 28, 2006	Opening of the Competition Policy and Customs Union chapters of the Acquis
20 July 2006	Opening of Social Policy & Employment chapter of the Acquis
December 11, 2006	Opening and closing of the Education & Culture chapter of the Acquis
29 March 2007	Opening of Intellectual Property Law chapter of the Acquis
June 26, 2007	Opening of six chapters of the Acquis: Right of Establishment & Freedom to provide Services, Company Law, Financial Services, Information Society & Media, Statistics and Financial Control
October 12, 2007	Opening of Consumer & Health Protection and External Relations chapters of the Acquis
20 December 2007	Opening of Trans-European Networks and Financial & Budgetary Provisions chapters of the Acquis
21 April 2008	Opening of Energy and Transport Policy chapters of the Acquis
17 June 2008	Opening of Social Policy & Employment and Freedom of Movement for Workers chapters of the Acquis
25 July 2008	Opening of Free Movement of Goods chapter of the Acquis and closing of the Enterprise & Industrial Policy chapter
30 October 2008	Closing of the External Relations chapter

Possible accession dates

In June 2006, the EU officials projected that the accession of Croatia would likely happen in 2009 or 2010. The closure of negotiations for all chapters of the acquis communautaire is expected in 2008 or 2009, while signing the Accession treaty would happen in the months afterwords. Before starting negotiations with Croatia, the acquis was divided into 35 chapters, 4 more than the previous 31; the new chapters, previously part of the agricultural policy and judiciary, are complex areas - their division into a few smaller chapters is meant to enable more efficient and expedient negotiations.

Originally Croatia had been aiming for a 2007 accession date—such an accomplishment would have broken Slovakia's record of 2.5 years of negotiations to complete the process. It has been remarked by Olli Rehn that the EU does expect a similar speed from Croatia. Still, the EU needs to solve its internal problems before accommodating any new member after 2007; under the current Treaty of Nice, the EU cannot function with more than 27 member states. The EU Constitution would have had this problem solved, but its rejection made any future accession more difficult, requiring additional administrative reforms.

In June 2006 commissioner Rehn stated that there will be no further enlargement of the European Union in this decade other than the 2007 accession of Bulgaria and Romania, due to the impasse in EU treaty reform following the rejection of the European Constitution in France and The Netherlands. Nevertheless Croatia will probably be the "first to meet all necessary conditions" and therefore be "the next country on the list", according to Rehn.

On the 25 April 2007 the European Parliament congratulated Croatia for making "rapid progress" towards membership, but stated that "it must make further efforts in areas such as cooperation with the ICTY, reform of the judiciary and the transition to a market economy". MEPs also stressed the need for a new institutional framework for the EU by 2008 in order to accommodate Croatia. Austria and the Czech Republic predict Croatia will be ready for EU membership by 2009. President of Poland Lech Kaczyński also supported 2009 as Croatia's time of accession. As of January 2008, negotiations are expected to be concluded by the end of the year with MEPs giving approval the following year before the 2009 election. A likely accession date after that would be 2011.

On 6 March 2008, Krister Bringeus, the Swedish Ambassador to Serbia was quoted as saying that Croatia and Serbia were likely to join the EU together between 2012 and 2015. This comment caused considerably controversy until the Swedish government suggested that the remarks had been misreported and the Ambassador to Croatia, Lars Fredén, restated Sweden's position that it would aim to conclude negotiations during its presidency of the EU in 2009.

On 13 March 2008, President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso stated that Croatia could conclude negotiations in the year 2009 and join the EU as early as 2010, after the country suspended a dispute over fishing that it had with Slovenia.

The Treaty of Lisbon would have erased all legal blocks currently preventing accession by Croatia to the Union. With the rejection of the Treaty in a referendum in Ireland, Croatia's immediate accession prospects are unclear. The French and German governments are said to be of the view that institutional change to make decision-making more efficient was vital for further enlargement to proceed, whereas states such as the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic argue that the existing framework is sufficient.

See also

• Foreign relations of Croatia
• Enlargement of the European Union

Further reading

• Jović, Dejan (2006). "Croatia and the European Union: a long delayed journey". Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans. 8 (1): 85–103. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |laydate=, |laysource=, |quotes=, |laysummary=, and |coauthors= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

External links

• Official website - Negotiations for the Accession of the Republic of Croatia to the European Union
• Official EU-website concerning enlargement
  • Website of the European Commission concerning the enlargement process
• BBC News: inside Europe: EU enlargement