engleski

Croatia: Negative results for the government coalition

European parliament (EP) elections in Croatia took place only a year after the special EP elections held in 2013 just before Croatia’s accession to the European Union (EU). Croatian entry into the EU, unlike the accession of other countries of Central and Eastern Europe in 2004 and 2007, was not an event market by palpable enthusiasm and high expectations, but rather, it was a market with subdued optimism or indifference. It was seen by the public both as a chance to change the direction of the stagnant economy and improve the functioning of institutions and as an inevitable development with uncertain prospect for the country that might not be fully prepared to take the benefits of membership. The first year of membership in the EU was marked by Croatia’s relatively peripheral position in most important developments in the EU related to dealing with the fallout of the euro crisis. While affected by the Eurozone crisis, Croatia is not a member of the Eurozone and its economic problems started well before the accession and are unrelated to the EU. Therefore, Croatia was mainly an observer in debates about response to crisis and future directions of the EU economic governance. Furthermore, the first several months of membership were characterised by the dispute that the Croatian government had with the EU over the implementation of the European arrest warrant, which resulted in government humbling if not humiliating climbdown after six months of argument with the European Commission. But in general, the Croatian public was neither sufficiently informed about current developments in the EU, nor was it informed about the debates regarding the future direction of the EU. As a result, EU and European questions in general featured very little in public debates before the EP elections.

European elections

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