With the ongoing expansion of the European Union (EU), the economic and political union of European countries, Croatia will soon join the ranks of the other member nations to become the EU’s 28th constituent.
After first entering negotiations in 2005, Croatia has finally overcome a six-year struggle with the European Commission to fulfill all benchmarks and criteria required to join the union. With the expected date of Croatia signing the accession treaty on July 1st, 2013, the commissioners will be monitoring the country’s efforts in maintaining the reforms they have achieved thus far for the next two years before the official signing.
By joining the European Union, Croatia stands to become a member of a unique system of nation-independent institutions and intergovernmental policy-makers made up of the member states. These include the European Commission, the Council of the European Union, the Court of Justices of the European Union and, of course, the European Central Bank. Along with the individual parliaments for each nation, EU citizens are responsible for electing the members of the European Parliament every five years. The EU is especially unique in its united set of laws, policies and its own currency. Croatia, under EU law, would abolish passport laws in order to engage in the free movement of goods, capital and individuals that current members enjoy. Also, the EU-drawn legislation would hold Croatia to a set of universal policies regarding law, trade and national development. Most notably, Croatia would adopt the highly-valued EU currency, the “euro” as the country’s only currency. Along with many more “perks” that come from joining this union, Croatia stands to gain monetary, political, and military support from all 27 member nations when required.
Before gaining such an affiliation, Croatia, like many other countries, had to meet a strict set of requirements formally called the Copenhagen Criteria (which were formally recognized in June of 1993). These criteria consist of a combination of political, economical and legislative rules that define whether the interested country is eligible to join the EU. The most important of these criteria states that each member of the EU must have a stable democratic government that abides the “rule of law” (the rule of law is the notion that no one individual is above the laws and consequences of the rules imposed by a governing body) and must respect the freedoms and institutions that are associated with said governing body. While most countries in Europe are able to prove the above fundamental law, the associated laws with the Copenhagen Criteria regarding human rights, market economy and judicial practices are what set the EU members and other countries in Europe apart. In the case of Croatia, the major setback this country faced in fulfilling these criteria was its sub-par judiciary system. Especially after the issues the EU faced after Bulgarian and Romanian accession to the union in 2007, this nation had difficulty in gaining EU membership due to its failure to fully cooperate with the prosecution of possible war criminals. Along with other reforms to the Croatian judicial system, Croatia finally managed to meet all of the union’s 35 policy requirements.
Assuming that Croatia will be able to maintain its standing over the next two years, Croatia will sign the accession treaty with the EU in the fall and hold a national referendum on the impending membership within the month. Afterward, the signed treaty will have to be ratified by all 27 member countries (although this is just a formality). Only after two years of monitoring by the European Commission will Croatia join the EU. Now all we can do is watch to see if Croatia can keep up their hard work and, in time, join this exclusive club of nations.