A long journey that began in 2005 has come to an end. Zagreb today concluded negotiations for accession to the European Union: this is what José Manuel Barroso announces in a press release. The president of the EU Commission will ask the EU heads of state, who will meet in the Council on 24 June, to formally close the negotiations, prepare the accession treaty and begin the long process of parliamentary ratification in the 28 countries involved. A process without foreseeable obstacles but which does not allow to set a date prior to July 2013, XNUMX for the effective entry of the Balkan country.
Croatia has a population of 4 million people, but less than 1% of the Union's total GDP. Croatian citizens enjoy a per capita income equal to 64% of the European average, but a higher level of well-being than that experienced by Poles, Bulgarians, Romanians and Balts. Italy is Zagreb's main trading partner, followed by Germany.
While neighboring Slovenia has been a full member since 2004 and a member of the euro since 2007, Croatia has struggled to overcome the traumatic end of Yugoslavia. Engaged in the military conflict against the Serbs until 1995, Croatia only got rid of the dictatorship of Franjo Tudjman in 1999 and undertook a democratic transition. The ghost of war and tensions with neighboring countries have slowed down the accession negotiations: not only have the controversies linked to the arrest of the war hero/criminal Ante Gotovina weighed down, but also the border disputes with Slovenia and the disputes with Italy over real estate purchase and sale rights and the exploitation of the waters of the Adriatic.
