Has the EU Changed Croatia for the Better?

welcome to Across the Vulcans great to have you with us on the show I'm ludovico 10 years ago Croatia joined the European Union as the Block's 28th member a lot has happened since then with several major events testing the group's unity and relevance in a fast-changing world from the ongoing migrant crisis that began in 2015 to the covid-19 pandemic and most recently the war in Ukraine the EU has seen numerous cracks in its Unity but Croatia is clearly sided with the block and has pushed human rights democracy and strong institutions and this year Croatia gained entry into the Eurozone and the Schengen area which has had a dramatic impact on its demographics and economy velcos kendrea went to Zagreb to find out more [Music] foreign [Music] mood these days on July 1st the country marked 10 years since they joined the European Union a decade of membership has provided an opportunity to look back on how much has been done and whether it made the right decision is politicama a survey conducted by Patrick and his colleagues in fact showed that a majority of the population was against joining the Eurozone many of them believe it reduces Croatia's sovereignty for the benefit of Brussels and some like Nino rasputic are also critical of the so-called decadence of the EU said objects is however it would be incorrect to say that the state did not profit Croatia has made a surplus of 11 billion dollars from the monetary exchange with EU treasury since 2013 its GDP per capita Rose from 11 000 to 18 000. exports have also grown by 150 percent in 10 years so has the EU changed Croatia for the better economic data says it has today Croatia is more organized country standards are higher but could it have done better of course one downside is that the speed of economic change LED to a vast Exodus as much as 10 percent of Croatia's population left over the past decade to wealthier member states and it was not only the speed of economic changes that pushed roughly 300 000 croats abroad it also has a lot to do with economic policies that favored investments in state-owned Enterprises and infrastructure over encouraging entrepreneurship and technological transformation is a [Music] the president of Croatia who permanently advocated joining the Bloc 10 years ago as prime minister is also critical foreign States now stand in the context of the Union the accession of Croatia after the longest negotiation ever in 2013 was hailed as a historic event not only for Zagreb and Brussels but also for the region but 10 years later Croatia Still Remains the last country to join the union Croatia's 10-year journey is proved that the accession process is difficult but possible the Western Balkans should try to catch the momentum now that the focus is on them again and before the so-called enlargement fatigue returns to the corridors of Brussels the European Union also seemed eager to show that it's still expanding and integrating societies that wish to be part and this is constantly repeated by the highest European officials and it's time for all sides to get real about accession Croatia has shown that enlargement is a win-win so we must keep our door open for those two who look to Europe as their home we need to deliver on our promises and we can never be afraid of change and reform it seems Brussels is committed to the idea of European unity and cares that the countries of the region follow Croatia's path but how sincere are these words former Croatian Prime Minister yadron kakosar who negotiated the lifting of the Slovenian blockade which had prevented Croatia's entry into the EU is unconvinced foreign all countries in the western Balkans have candidate status except Kosovo Montenegro opened all negotiation chapters then closed only three but none in the last two years Serbia has opened only 18 chapters and closed too despite there being no formal decision the negotiations are practically Frozen after a long wait North Macedonia and Albania opened negotiations only in March 2020 but to this day they don't have any open chapters Bosnia and Herzegovina received candidate status in December last year and has yet to fulfill the conditions to begin negotiations so there really hasn't been any progress for years but Kosar also warns that the problem is not one-sided um believes that the Western Balkan states have fallen into a limbo that can only be solved after a generational change of political Elites since Russia's attack on Ukraine the EU has wanted the countries of the region under its umbrella so alternative ideas have appeared such as the European political Community proposed by French president Emmanuel macron which brings the countries closer to the EU without full membership as it stands the Western Balkan states have made modest progress in meeting the EU criteria and not entirely through any fault of their own residents in the region have long turned away from Brussels blaming what they call years of neglect and shifting this sentiment may require a lot of Will and energy from both sides otherwise Croatia could well Remain the youngest member of the European Union for at least another decade if not more vedascaderia trt World Zagat Croatia joining me now is Marina witch she is a professor at the University of Zagreb thank you very much for joining us today so Marina for Croatia the EU accession process was very long and complex could you please summarize what the main sticking points were back then but also what changes this process initially prompted in the country um indeed the Croatia has a long and hard process to assess the EU it launched longer than 10 years but it's also story of changes of increasing democracy it's a learning process and also the process of huge success uh during those uh uh period uh Croatia changed in administrative part uh Exchange in the level of democracy increase the trade increase the transparency and most most of uh all uh assessed to the European Union uh uh market and free trade zone uh really uh help us during this process uh we are watching some of the most uh important days uh of Celebration when we joined the EU in meantime uh one of the biggest success is the drawing the Schengen Zone and uh since the first January this year uh uh implementation of Euro so we are now fully integrated in huge European uh family right it's a very complex process Marina but some analysts say that after joining the EU and possibly due to a lack of preparation Croatia has been quite slow in sort of taking the advantage of the opportunities offered by the EU what do they mean exactly and do you agree with this assessment um actually we in the last month we showed that the growth in last 10 years is traveled uh it's three times bigger than ever uh we are we have very uh high growth in the EU even in the period recession um uh uh additionally we had some challenges and with uh as a you it's not adjustable in Ukraine but it was the presidency of six months of the Croatia when we had the insane time huge devastating earthquake in the capital cities are great and the covet but in all time we um put as a set of our priorities a strong Europe in the world of challenges um we accepted that uh we are the part of Europe they connect and also um uh influential the Europe in the um in uh worldwide is much bigger bigger than ever of course Croatia is a small country we are less than 4 million inhabitants but uh um it's a whole world who said um small is beautiful so we do believe that this access to the Europe as a currency really helped out tourism and be part of the Schengen is additionally Advantage for our trade uh movement of the people um workflow and uh in unemployment rate is lower than ever right on this point well as you said it's a small country and over this 10 years Croatia has seen tremendous economic gains and growth but at the same time there's also been some downsides right including a mass Exodus of young people who have moved to richer EU countries to work what can Croatia do to lure those people back and slow down migration there is no problem in migration migration is a part of every single country in the world so what we need to think is about not just about drain uh brain drain but also to think about the brain game and we know the digital Nomads is very popular now and I'm just working on one horizon 2020 application with apartments from Turkey in which we would like to stimulate uh people to come and live in Croatia because uh we have amazing beautiful country a natural uh um parks and sea so the climate is very good and IP development in the country is a big additionally Croatia is the uh two unicorns and according to the number of the unicorns are coding the World level we are among three countries the highest number of unicorns per million of inhabitants really really good to hear about this advancement and at the same time a marina like most European countries Croatia as well has its eurosceptic parties what main objections are these parties raising and how popular are they in the country actually uh we voted for EU uh 10 years before they joined it uh since the war in the Croatia we wanted to be part of the democratic uh world and the world of the EU so we are very proud on our membership and our Schengen Zone on our small influence to uh EO family and uh uh Skeptics of the EU complain about inflation uh prices rates but it's much more skeptic about the EU currency than uh membership of the EU because we would like to be small as we are but they would like to be open okay and if if you belongs to the uh and have a free access to uh almost uh 500 million inhabitants of the EU and you can travel without a passport and you can uh use the telephone everywhere in the Europe has the same prices um it's huge privilege and uh actually we are happy that uh together we are stronger right and you're happy to be small but you want to see uh um influence of the Skeptics um in our country as a big problem all right so you're happy to be small but you want to be an open country as you say one last question quickly a Croatia's prime minister also said that Russia's aggression has changed uh the way members feel about EU enlargement what impact has the war in Ukraine had on uh enlarging the Block in your opinion in in this moment we have a uh two free countries that are trying to join the EU and their negotiation process we never told uh uh and uh no one in Europe believed that EU is a close club uh we always open a doors to every country who are willing to join the uh and follow European values uh but of course we find out that United Europe uh is important more than ever because uh the war in Ukraine affected all the Europe and also affected all the world um uh hopefully Croatia started with energy transition uh early so we are not so affected with the problems with uh distribution of energy from Russia uh we had a strong uh expert to Russia in the past but we follow all sanctions that EU um integrated nice and unfortunately we are running out of time but Marina David thank you very much for joining us today

Channel: TRT World

Views: 15,113

Keywords: #10years, Croatia, EU, anniversary

Id: F8d3FOj5XyI

Length: 16min 33sec (993 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 05 2023