Croatia set to end long journey towards EU

(ZAGREB) - Croatia is to sign an EU accession treaty Friday, a move paving the way for the former Yugoslav republic to join the bloc in mid-2013, after long and often difficult negotiations.

While the signing ceremony in Brussels is the culmination of a long-held ambition, with the hit the country had taken from the global economic downturn the enthusiasm of ordinary Croatians has waned.

And before Zagreb can formally join the bloc on July 1, 2013, they will get to vote on the question in a referendum early next year.

The latest survey suggested that around 60 percent if Croatians would back EU membership.

But one Western diplomat cautioned that the length of time the membership talks had taken had taken their toll.

"Europe is much less attractive than a few years ago," the official, who did not want to be named, added.

Voter Sanja Mikacic, a 52-year-old professor of Italian now working as a librarian, said she would back membership in a referendum.

She was nevertheless cautious about its benefits. "It remains to be seen what it will bring us eventually," she said.

"Countries' experiences are different and it will take a few years to make a cost-benefit analysis," she told AFP.

The signing of the treaty in Brussels Friday comes 20 years after Croatia proclaimed independence, sparking a four-year war with Belgrade-backed rebel Serbs.

"A dream that we've been dreaming for a long time has come true," outgoing Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor, due to sign the treaty along with President Ivo Josipovic, said recently.

"Croatia is better prepared than some member states, like Bulgaria and Romania," one foreign diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

But he warned that the "global and European economic environment is fragile," which might make it more difficult for Zagreb to find its place within the bloc.

The economy of Croatia, which has a population of 4.2 million, is based mostly on Adriatic coast tourism. It has been in recession for most of the time since early 2009 and the official growth forecast for this year is a modest 0.5 percent.

Unemployment is running at above 17 percent.

Economic analysts argue that the country has to reform the generous welfare system, cut red tape and improve competitiveness.

Specialists also warn that Croatia is not sufficiently prepared to absorb some 3.5 billion euros ($4.6 billion) of EU structural funds, aimed at reducing regional disparities in income, once it joins in 2013.

Croatia is the second of the six republics that formed the old socialist Yugoslavia, that collapsed in a series of 1990s bloody wars, to join the bloc.

Of the six -- Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia -- only the latter is an EU member since 2004.

Croatia, which along with Slovenia was was one of the most prosperous Yugoslav republics, missed out on the big-bang EU enlargement in 2004, when 10 mostly post-communist countries joined.

Engulfed in the 1991-1995 war and its legacy, the country saw its European ambitions put on ice during the authoritarian and nationalist rule of the 'Father of the Nation' Franjo Tudjman.

After centre-left rulers took over in 2000 following Tudjman's death, they transformed the country into a pro-European democracy.

Croatia applied for EU membership in 2003 and accession negotiations began in October 2005.

After a slow start, when talks stalled over the issue of war crimes, the talks suffered further delays in 2008 when they were blocked for 10 months because of a border dispute with Slovenia.

Kosor, who took over in 2009, got the talks going again and stepped up the fight against corruption.

But then the allegations of corruption surfaced within her own HDZ party, costing them dear in Sunday's elections, when a centre-left coalition swept them from power.

High on the agenda for a new Social Democrat-led government, which is expected to be formed by the end of the month, will be organising the EU referendum.