Europe

Croatia
Last reviewed: 01 February 2008

Country information

Politics

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POLITICS

Recent Political Developments

President Tudjman died in 1999. The political climate started to change in January 2000 when SDP leader Ivica Racan led a coalition of opposition parties to victory in parliamentary elections. Stjepan Mesic was elected President on 18 February 2000 and was subsequently re-elected in February 2005. The new government worked to end Croatia’s international isolation and embed democracy. Relations with Croatia’s neighbours and the West improved greatly. Croatia joined the NATO Partnership for Peace (PfP) in 2000, and was accepted into NATO’s Membership Action Plan (MAP) in 2002 and was invited to join NATO in April 2008. On the EU track Croatia signed a Stabilisation and Association Agreement, the first step towards membership, in October 2001.

Current Prime Minister Ivo Sanader’s revitalised HDZ came to power in November 2003 on a pro-EU and NATO reform ticket. Croatia was accepted as a candidate for EU membership in June 2004; EU opened accession negotiations on 3 October 2005 following an assessment by the then Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte that Croatia was co-operating fully with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague (ICTY). On 8 December 2005, the Tribunal's last remaining Croatian indictee, General Ante Gotovina, was arrested and subsequently transferred to The Hague for trial on charges of crimes against humanity.

Parliamentary elections were held on 25 November 2007. The governing HDZ (modern-conservative) were re-elected, and a coalition under Sanader was sworn in on 12 January 2008. The opposition SDP under Zoran Milanovic are the only major party not aligned to the coalition. On issues related to EU and NATO membership there is broad cross-party consensus. The breakdown of the 152 seats as of January 2008 was:

Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) - 66 seats
Social Democratic Party (SDP) – 56 seats
Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) and Croatian Liberal Party (HSLS) coalition - 8 seats
Croatian People's Party (HNS) - 7 seats
Croatian Democratic Alliance of Slavonia and Baranja (HDSSB) – 3 seats
Istrian Democratic Assembly (IDS) – 3 seats
Croatian Party of Rights (HSP) - 1 seat
HSU (Croatian Party of Pensioners) - 1 seat
Nation Minority Parties: Serb (3), Italian, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, Roma – 8 seats

Presidential elections are next due in 2010. Due to the 2 term limit on office this will mean a new President will be elected. The next parliamentary elections are due in 2011.

Croatian news websites with text in English

State news agency

State television company

Croatia’s Political Priorities: European Union and NATO membership

Croatia’s foreign policy priorities remain securing membership of both the European Union (EU) and NATO. Both organisations require far-reaching domestic reform as a condition of membership, in particular the EU. These reforms continue to dominate the political landscape.

NATO

Croatia was invited to join NATO at the alliance’s summit in Bucharest in April 2008. The process of ratifying the accession protocols is now underway. In the meantime Croatia is continuing its efforts to fully implement defence reforms and integrate into NATO structures.

Croatia and the EU

The accession negotiations split the body of EU law (the acquis communautaire) into 35 ‘chapters’. These cover issues ranging from the free movement of goods and protection of intellectual property rights to reform of the judiciary, protection of fundamental rights and implementation of EU environmental standards. As of August 2008, Croatia had opened 18 chapters in the negotiations, and provisionally closed 3.

The Commission will produce a non-binding indicative timetable for Croatian membership alongside its Annual Progress Report in November 2008. This will set out what further reforms Croatia needs to undertake to conclude technical negotiations by late 2009 (meaning possible membership in 2010/11).

In its November 2007 Annual Progress Report the European Commission identified a number of areas in which further progress was needed. These included public administration reform, judicial reform, and efforts to fight corruption (all particularly demanding areas) as well as further progress on refugee return and minority rights.

United Nations

Croatia has been a member of the United Nations since 1992. It is a non-permanent member of the Security Council for the period 2008-2010. It also has the responsibility of chairing the UN’s ad-hoc Counter Terrorism Committee (CTC). The Croatian army currently participates in 11 UN peacekeeping missions around the world, including Missions in Kashmir, Sierra Leone, and Sudan. Croatia’s contribution to the International Stabilisation Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan will rise to 300 in 2008.

NATO Enlargement

UN Peacekeeping

Enlargement - European Commission