Yesterday, on 26 January, the European Parliament adopted a resolution saying that Croatia’s accession negotiations could be completed in the first half of 2011 provided the country stays on track, meaning the EU could gain another member state next year.
But now some members of the European Parliament have voiced concerns that the country’s 4.5 million citizens might not even want to join. The Croatian authorities must do more to engage their people and educate them about the benefits of being a member of the European Union, the European Parliament has said.
Indeed, the EU is not held in high esteem by many Croatians. According to the 2009 Eurobarometer, which measures attitudes in Europe, only 24 per cent of Croatians said joining Europe would be a good thing for their country, while 37 per cent said it would be bad. With the descent of the Euro, the huge financial bailouts and the growing rifts between some member states, this bad image of Europe is likely to have plummeted further.
Will this be flag number 28?
But the question for MEPs should not be what Croatians can do to promote Europe – it should be what can Europe do to make Croatians want to be part of the EU!
Upon entering the European Union, Croatians will be faced with a series of obligations that probably outweigh their privileges. They will have to pay the membership fee, according to their percentage of GDP. They will have to comply with myriads of European laws and policies, which its government has to roll out nationwide within a certain time frame. High-impact national strategies, for example dealing with the fallout from the Serbia-Kosovo conflict, will suddenly be dominated by the EU’s right of free movement. The country will lose its border controls, independent currency and separate trade regulations.
In return, they will, at some point in the next 20 years, get to chair the Council of Ministers for 6 months, and maybe get to head a minor directorate general in the European Commission, like so many of the newer member states.
This is where European politicians and policymakers will have to step in. Europe too often seems like an “old boys’ network”, where the traditional member states like Germany, France, Italy and Austria make backroom politics between them, with the Nordics listening in and the eastern European member states waiting outside for the results. The Eurobee has often been to special debriefing sessions for a selected few diplomats, who then steer the politics supposedly made by masses. Even in the European Commission it is the old member states that hold the most influential posts – often favouring their home countries in their politics, or at least giving them hints on how to get a bigger slice of the pie.
This sort of attitude and behaviour has to stop if the EU wants to keep the image it has worked so hard for – being the biggest, most successful and most elite democracy project on Earth. Not perfect, true, but the best we have.
MEPs, the European Commission and member states have to reach out to the smaller, less established and less experienced countries. In times of crisis those politicians love to underline that “We are all in this together”, and they keep presenting Europe as a place of superiority in democracy, international friendship and integration.
It is time to act on these promises and welcome the Croatians like new neighbours – with respect, advice and open doors!
