QUO VADIS CROATIA COUNTRIES IN TRANSITION AND THE EUROPEAN UNION – WHERE IS CROATIA

During the 1990-ties one of the developmental goals of all countries in transition was also the accession into the European Union. The most successful of them, the Central European countries, will realize this option already in 2004. Croatia (beside Slovenia) belongs to a group of countries which were best prepared for transition. Cumulative mistakes of economic and general political character during the 1990-ties removed Croatia from the group of Central European countries which would become the members of the European Union already in 2004. The left centre who formed
the government after the elections in January 2000 imposed as its basic strategic task the earliest possible accession into the European Union. The essential change of international position of Croatia, as well as particular successes in economics (a four-year GDP average growth rate of more than 4%, illiquidity restraint, discontinuity in unemployment trend), as well as noticeable shifts in general democratization and improvement in living conditions, enabled the acceleration of the accession of Croatia into the European Union. This will probably happen in 2007. The entire policy and science (especially social science) must do their best in order to help this realization in 2007.