| Author (Person) | Davies, Eric | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Publisher | ProQuest Information and Learning | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Series Title | In Focus | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Series Details | 10.5.04 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Publication Date | 10/05/2004 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content Type | News, Overview, Topic Guide | In Focus | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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On 20 April 2004, the European Commission recommended that the European Union should open accession negotiations with Croatia. Announcing the decision, Commission President Romano Prodi said: 'Over the past few years, Croatia has made major efforts to advance along the road to EU membership, and the Commission's Opinion acknowledges this progress. Therefore the Commission can now recommend to the Council the launch of accession negotiations with Croatia. Croatia's performance shows that the EU strategy for the Western Balkans provides a good framework for economic and political progress and will hopefully encourage the other countries of the region to redouble their efforts to make progress towards European integration.' Background The European Union currently provides significant financial assistance to Croatia, primarily aimed at achieving three objectives:
The majority of funding is made available via the CARDS Programme (Community Assistance for Reconstruction, Development and Stabilisation), which allocated €189 million to Croatia for 2002-2004. Croatia also benefits from a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU. The SAA was signed in October 2001; the ratification process has not been completed, and an Interim Agreement, signed in March 2002, is currently in force. Croatia is judged to have 'made progress in applying the Interim Agreement although due attention needs to be paid to the respect of the deadlines set out therein.' The Agreement gives Croatia almost complete access to the Union's Single Market, in return for Croatia taking on the 'core obligations' of EU membership, bringing its legal and economic systems in line with those of the Union, and working to improve relations with its neighbours. Croatia's application to join the European Union was submitted to the then Greek Presidency on 21 February 2003. Two months later, the Council asked the Commission to examine the application and deliver an Opinion on it. As with other applications to join the EU, Croatia's bid has been assessed on the basis of the 'Copenhagen Criteria', established by the European Council in 1993, which broadly cover three areas: politics, economics, and the obligations of EU membership as set out in the body of existing legislation known as the Community acquis. As far as the political criteria are concerned, the Commission is satisfied that Croatia 'is a functioning democracy, with stable institutions guaranteeing the rule of law'. However, although the Commission asserted that there are 'no major problems regarding the respect of fundamental rights', it did identify a number of areas for concern. These were highlighted by External Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten, who presented the Opinion to the European Parliament on 20 April. Mr Patten drew attention to four particular issues: the state of the judiciary; Croatia's relations with its neighbours; minority rights; and cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia - the ICTY (see: Chris Patten: Commission's presentation of Croatia's Avis to the European Parliament; in April 2004, the ICTY Chief Prosecutor confirmed that Croatia is now fully cooperating with the ICTY). In its Opinion on the application of Croatia for membership of the European Union, the Commission was thus able to confirm that 'Croatia meets the political criteria set by the Copenhagen European Council in 1993 as well as the conditionalities of the Stabilisation and Association Process established by the Council in 1997.' With reference to the economic criteria, the Commission's view is that 'Croatia can be regarded as a functioning market economy. It should be able to cope with competitive pressure and market forces within the Union in the medium term, provided that it continues implementing its reform programme to remove remaining weaknesses.' The picture regarding Croatia's ability to comply with the Community acquis is more mixed. Whilst 'significant efforts' have been made to align national legislation with that of the EU, there is concern over Croatia's uneven' administrative capacity and hence over its ability to implement and enforce EU law. Based on an analysis of the current acquis, which has been divided into 29 'Chapters', each dealing with a particular issue or issues, the Commission has identified four categories of legislation. The following areas are identified by the Commission as being unlikely to give Croatia any major difficulties over the medium term:
In the medium term, 'further efforts' will be required to align, implement and enforce the acquis in a number of areas:
'Considerable and sustained efforts' will be needed if Croatia is to align, implement and enforce legislation over the medium term in the following fields:
The most worrying area is the environment, where the Commission warns that 'very significant efforts will be needed, including substantial investment and strengthening of administrative capacity for the enforcement of legislation. Full compliance with the acquis could be achieved only in the long term and would necessitate increased levels of investment.' Nevertheless, on the basis of its analysis, the Commission felt able to support Croatia's application, thus paving the way for the European Council to decide if and when to open negotiations with Croatia. That decision now seems likely to be taken at the June Summit under the Irish Presidency. Although Croatia officially has its sights on acceding to the Union in 2007, the amount of work involved in complying with the Community acquis is thought to make that an unlikely entry date (see European Voice: Bulgaria and Romania have been set a target of 2007 and there is concern that linking the entry of the three might delay the accession of those two countries. The Romanian Academic Society has argued that 'Delaying both Bulgaria and Romania's accession, simply because of reasons of political sympathy with Croatia, would discredit the EU's enlargement policy not only in the two countries but in the western Balkans as well (see European Voice: Whilst the Commission has supported Croatia's application and Romano Prodi has stated that 'how far and how fast Croatia will advance towards EU membership will remain in its own hands' (see: Croatia: Commission recommends opening of accession negotiations), Member States have been divided in their opinions. Austria and Germany, for instance, are in favour of the bid, but The Netherlands and the UK are reported to be withholding their support until Croatia is judged to have done all it can to ensure that General Ante Gotovina is brought before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (see Financial Times: At the same time as it issued its Opinion, the Commission also announced that it had approved a draft proposal for a decision to establish a European Partnership with Croatia. Based on the Accession Partnerships introduced to prepare previous applicants for membership, the European Partnership aims to help Croatia focus its efforts and resources to best effect. Perhaps anticipating the European Council's decision on Croatia's application, the Commission also announced that it is in the process of preparing a draft pre-accession strategy. Further information within European Sources Online European Sources Online: In Focus
European Sources Online: Topic Guides
European Sources Online: European Voice
European Sources Online: Financial Times
Further information can be seen in these external links: EU Institutions European Commission DG Press and Communication
DG External Relations
Media organisations BBC News Online
Eric Davies Background and reporting on the week's main stories in the European Union and the wider Europe. |
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| Subject Categories | Politics and International Relations | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Countries / Regions | Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
