Suchergebnisse

Croatian membership in the EU is subject to the fulfilment of the legal and political obligations laid down in, among other places, the SAA, the Stability and Association Agreement. The implementation of the SAA depends on the definition of its position in the constitutional system of the Republic of Croatia, including the ability for its provisions to be directly applied in EU and in Croatian courts, the legal status of the bodies provided for in the SAA, and the legal position and legal standing of the decisions taken by these bodies. The implementation of constitutional changes is necessary for full membership of the EU, and some changes are also necessary even for implementation of the SAA. These are provisions that provide the legal basis for membership in the EU, including the definition of the manner of making use of state sovereignty, provisions that define in detail the legal status of international law and European primary and secondary law in the internal legal system of the EU, and provisions that adapt the constitutional organisation of the Republic of Croatia to the conditions of associate or full membership of the EU, optimise the functions of the institutions of state authority that will have to work in new conditions. In an evaluation of the fulfilment of the conditions for membership in the EU, the criterion for evaluation of the extent to which the legal system is adjusted will not be only the contents of the legal standards, but also the political, economic and social matters that are governed by these legal standards.

This paper discusses the opportunities for and obstacles in the way of a dialogue between the Croatian government and the non-governmental sector within the context of the European integration process. Although the development of civil society, the building of institutional
and administrative capacities and the strengthening of cross-sectoral dialogue are fundamental preconditions for the implementation of the overall adjustment to the EU, there is no clear list of priorities and demands on the basis of which it might be possible to monitor the progress
made in this area by candidate and potential applicant countries for membership. Because of the lack of any clearly defined acquis, several strategic documents of the European institutions and the existing literature about the advances made by applicant states will be used as a point
of departure for the analysis. The main guidelines for and obstacles to reform in this area in Croatia will be picked out in the light of the European criteria of good governance and the relevant experience of applicant countries.

The ability of a country to meet the criteria for financial convergence on the EU depends on four key factors: the behaviour and structure of the banks and non-banking financial service providers, the degree of development of the money and capital markets, the regulatory environment and the openness of the country to international financial currents. In this work the factors that work in favour of a rapid accession by Croatia to the EU and those that are the key areas of vulnerability on the same road are identified. The first group of factors includes the developmental level of the banking system, whose structural characteristics (competitiveness, ownership structure and scope of financial mediation) work in favour of rapid integration. This group also includes the standardising regulatory framework, the changes in which over the last few years have brought Croatia very close to the standards of the EU. Non-banking financial service providers are relatively undeveloped; however, where the investment and pensions funds are concerned, their development and the regulatory environment, rapidly converging on international standards, guarantee imminent ability to be included in the integration processes. The main areas of vulnerability are the undeveloped share capital market and a restrictive
attitude with respect to international financial flows.

Reform of the Croatian legal system and the adjustment of its legislation to EU law is one of the main conditions for the Republic of Croatia to be able to join the Union. This paper analyses the existing requirements for gender equality inside the EU, the current situation in the applicant countries and the existing problems and challenges for states that are only on the way towards European integration. In the Republic of Croatia gender equality is not guaranteed to a sufficient
extent, which has resulted in negative public reactions from NGOs and organisations for the protection of human rights and the rights of women. In addition, individuals are exposed everyday to various forms of sexual harassment in the workplace, in schools, universities and public places. So far, except at the constitutional level, no kind of legal approach has been adopted to guarantee gender equality or freedom of sexual orientation, which is an obligation of Croatia according to international treaties and the SAA.

This paper examines the issue of communicating Europe to the European public, the importance of which has been accentuated by the acknowledged existence of a communication gap in the European Union. The paper looks at the experience and practice in the field of communication and refers to evidence of how the EU, its member states, candidate countries as well as Croatia have so far communicated European issues to their publics. The findings suggest several conclusions. Firstly, the practices resorted to so far have had an impact on the democratic feature of the EU and the public support it has acquired, but also on its practical everyday functioning. Secondly, there are numerous elements that account for the difficulties that exist in making the communication of Europe truly successful. Thirdly, the Europeanisation of communication should be taken into consideration as a way of contributing to the filling of the communication gap. Communication focusing not only on teaching facts but also on raising people's interest about European issues has become an EU policy of growing importance and a crucial instrument for ensuring the future ability to justify and win support for the European integration project.

This paper analyses the characteristics of EU regional policy and emphasizes the component of regional policy towards the Central and East European countries (CEEC) in the phases of candidacy and their full membership. Special importance was given to the possibility of Croatia to absorb funds offered by the EU. Potentials of Croatian regions are illustrated through the case of Istria, which successfully uses funds provided by the CARDS program and projects of Community Initiatives. In order to prepare Croatia (and its regions) as best as possible for use of these funds, it is necessary to set certain development documents, establish and reorganize (reassign) some
institutions and improve cooperation with the EU regions.

Croatia missed the first wave of Eastern EU enlargementi, but it is likely to start accession negotiations in 2005. It is gradually aligning its legislation with the EU acquis pursuant to the Interim Agreement. Adjustment costs linked with the integration process coupled with the lack of a firm timetable for full EU-integration might give rise to euroscepticism, decrease readiness for reforms and slow them down. Delays in reforms related to transition and integration can endanger
their effectiveness and impede development of the capacity to cope with market forces within the EU. This is the economic membership criterion. Hence, such developments can impede the fulfilment of EU membership criteria and also reduce the potential for exploiting the positive effects of integration.

Institution building is crucial for successful integration into the European Union (EU). Through the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA), Croatia bound itself to strengthen institutions at all levels in the area of the administration, priority areas being protection of competition and state aid. According to the demands that the EU has made on the public administrations of the accession countries in the pre-accession period, we shall identify the criteria for membership. We shall define the level of the fulfilment of conditions for membership and the measures that should be carried out during the process of the reform in Croatia by a comparative analysis of the state of affairs in Croatia, the candidates and the EU members. The main conclusion is that institutional weakness in Croatia is the outcome of failure to define the priorities and the timetable for the implementation of given reforms.

The objective of this work is to determine the extent of the conformity of the Croatian energy sector with the conditions for membership in the EU. According to a comparative analysis an identification is made of the state of affairs in the energy sector in the EU, in the Republic of Croatia and in the applicant countries, the level at which the conditions for membership are fulfilled and the necessary measures that have to be implemented during the reform. The main conclusion is that the legal system itself in the area of the Croatian energy system is already mainly harmonised with the EU system. However, concrete application of the rules departs from the
way rules are applied in the EU. Since these rules obtain their final form only during application, and the manner of interpretation and application is much harder to change than the rules themselves, particular attention needs devoting to practice in the process of adjustment.

This paper deals with the analysis of the utilitarian model of the explanation of popular support for Croatian entry into the European Union. The utilitarian model for explicating support or lack of support for accession to the EU has been analysed through subjective principled expectations of benefits and harms of entry into the Union at a personal and at a national level, and through concrete expectations at the level of twenty-two aspects of social and economic life. The research results show that on the basis of principled expectations it is possible precisely to predict support for entry into the EU, but that the principled expectations are not to any very great extent founded on concrete expectations in the observed aspects of social and economic life, and that they are to a certain degree linked with political viewpoints. On the other hand, concrete expectations are relatively weakly correlated with support for Croatian entry into the EU. Such a result suggests the conclusion that on the basis of a utilitarian explanation of support it is possible only relatively poorly to predict viewpoints concerning joining the EU, and that principled expectations of benefits and harms are in good part an expression of general impressions about the EU, trust in the political elite and political views of Croatian citizens, and to a lesser extent realistic rational calculations of harms and benefits. The paper is based on empirical survey of the views and spectations performed on a probabilistic national sample of a thousand citizens older than 15.

The paper discusses aspects of Croatian social policy, particularly social inclusion and social dialogue, in the context of Croatia's status as a candidate country for accession to the EU. It describes the development of a European Social Model demonstrating that, notwithstanding
certain problems, significant achievements have been made within the EU. Social dialogue has evolved from consultation to social governance, and the open method of co-ordination is implemented not only regarding employment issues but also in the social inclusion process. Furthermore, European concerns have been extended to the fields of pensions and health care, which will be addressed in future joint EU Social Protection Reports. The paper notes the salience of social policy issues in previous waves of accession. Analysis of Croatian welfare reforms shows that, thus far, the EU impact has been very limited. The paper calls for strengthened efforts, by Croatia and the EU, to ensure that aspects of social policy and the European Social Model are more systematically discussed, addressed and implemented as Croatia proceeds towards EU membership.

This paper assesses the trade criteria for EU membership and the extent to which Croatia fulfills those criteria. The relationship between trade criteria and the economic ability to pursue EU accession is discussed and a gravity model of Croatian trade is constructed in order to measure the level of trade diversification achieved in an objective manner. Significant trade biases towards the former Yugoslav republics are found as well as an emerging bias in imports from Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC). Moreover, the process of trade liberalization
that was promoted recently did in general not significantly contribute to trade diversification towards countries with which preferential trade agreements had recently been concluded, rather reinforced existing biases, although there are some differences between export and import flows.
In order to mitigate the consequences of delays in the integration processes, reduce long-term costs of trade restructuring and encourage the trade integration with the EU necessary for successful accession, Croatia should seek to eliminate the remaining institutional barriers to trade with the EU. Also, the continuation and faster implementation of structural reforms are necessary preconditions for an increase of openness in trade.

In this paper we try to assess and evaluate Croatian innovation capability thorough the framework of the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS), a system of innovation indicators. Economic theory
perceives innovation as a source of national competitiveness and the EU set the ability to compete within the single market as the main economic criterion for EU accession. Through the use of EIS indicators we are able to compare and rank Croatia's achievements in innovation policy against EU and Central and Eastern Europe countries (CEEC). Croatia ranks well by European standards in comparison to other CEEC, in particular Bulgaria and Romania, but has not made a significant progress in its innovation potential and policy with respect to the EU.

This paper provides a comparative empirical analysis of social values in Croatia, the European Union (EU), the countries joining in the first round, and a group of European countries outside the EU. Following up on the analysis of the data obtained in international research into European
values carried out at the end of the 90's on national samples of most European countries, the authors have endeavoured to determine the differences in the spread of post-material values and the scope of social capital. The objective is to define where, in terms of social values, Croatia is currently located, and thus to sketch out its readiness or lack of readiness for joining the EU. In the second part, the paper offers a comparative analysis of factors that affect the level of public confidence in the EU.

The labour market has the most important role in determining the standard of living of citizens of the Republic of Croatia, but this labour market is characterised more by the aim of preserving existing employment than of creating new jobs. Unemployment is a burning topic, irrespective of the considerable differences in data about employment or unemployment in various official sources. The paper will detail EU activities connected with employment, analyse the labour market and measures for reducing unemployment in the Republic of Croatia, and propose some ways in which the labour market might be improved.