euinside in Croatia
On the 1st of July 2013, Croatia is expected to become the 28th member of the European Union after it ended successfully the accession negotiations. The accession of a second country from former Yugoslavia to the EU (after Slovenia) is a big step forward for the region, as the expectations are this to serve as a catalyst for the European integration processes in the Western Balkans in the future. These processes have already been increasing after Montenegro started officially accession talks in 2012 and Serbia got a candidate country status; with Macedonia the European Commission has introduced a new approach - high level dialogue, while waiting for a solution to the dispute with Greece in order for the real accession talks to start; Bosnia and Herzegovina too is about to start on a journey to EU membership.
Because of this stir euinside decided to follow the events more closely and in July 2012 we have opened an office in Zagreb. From there we will be following the last steps of Croatia toward membership and also how are the other former Yugoslav republics moving onto this path. This is our main subject on Zagreb's accession, but please do follow the other subject of ours on the Western Balkans, where there are articles from the past 3 years of accession efforts of the countries in the region.
Lithuania Opens a Temporary Office in Zagreb Small Lithuania takes over the EU Council Presidency on July 1st. Exactly when the Union will accept its 28th member - Croatia. On this occasion the speaker of the parliament of Lithuania, Vydas Gedvilas, said that small Lithuania will take over on July 1st the biggest union ever. Many things wi ...
Croatia Has Changed Mindset. Next Step Is Active Citizenship Do you remember when the former tsar of the Bulgarians, Simeon Saxe-Coburg Gotta, called for a change of mindset? We laughed a lot back then. And it was even funnier when it became clear after his rule that he was hardly the person to talk about a mindset change. Nonetheless, against the backdro ...
Terror of Minority Continues* One of the most appropriate ways to learn more about a country, its problems and attitudes is by reading local press. That is why, from time to time we offer you herewith translations of some of the most colourful commentaries in the serious political and economic media in Croatia. While follow ...
Croatian Rose with Many Thorns Enters European Parliament The first European elections in Croatia have been won by Ruza Tomasic or as they call her here Ruza Hrvatska (Croatian rose). Thanks to the applied for the first time model of preferential voting, Ruza Tomasic surfaced from sixth place on the list of the right-wing coalition, led by the symbolic ...
Croatia Prefers Bilateral Issues To Be Resolved on a Bilateral Basis, Without Mediators Croatia is not inclined to allow a third party to interfere in the resolution of a bilateral issue, unless it is impossible the issue to be solved between the interested parties, while Belgium does not object the creation of an arbitration mechanism to solve bilateral issues but only if it is in ...
Ruza's Dream Ruža Tomašić, the leader of the rights' party "Dr. Ante Starcevic", scared quite a lot of people in the political and administrative establishment in Croatia. The tested for the first time option for preferential voting raised Ruža Tomašić, former Canadian emmigrant, to winner ...
The Economic Winter Will Stay in Croatia Quite pessimistically is titled the spring forecast of the European Commission for Croatia - "Recovery slipping further away. Stuck in recession". Only two months before its accession to EU, the moods in Croatia are not at all festive. The economy has been in recession since 2008 as by now the e ...
Less Emotions and a Lot of Pragmatism Serbia Wants in Relations with Croatia Changes in Serbia are one of the rare cases of which it could be said that EU does wonders. The government, which caused widespread fears in the international community and most of all in Europe because of its proximity to the regime that led to bloody wars in Europe in the end of the 20th centu ...
In Croatia Apathy Has Won the First European Elections April 14th was a very sunny and nice spring day. The citizens of Zagreb, but also a large part of Croats, had not seen so much sun for quite a while after a continuous period of torrential rains, accompanied by floods, and an exhaustingly long winter with record snow that opened large holes in t ...
Protest Against Cyrillic Alphabet in Zagreb, but not Exactly On Sunday, April 7th, on the central square in Zagreb, a mass protest took place against the introduction of the Cyrillic alphabet. In fact, this sentence is not very precise. The protest was not against the Cyrillic alphabet in general, but against its introduction specifically in Vukovar, Croa ...
Adelina Marini Adelina Marini 
