Suchergebnisse

This chapter summarizes the findings of the project of monitoring Croatian accession to the European Union. It draws particular attention to the challenges entailed in participation in the accession process and in relations with European countries, irrespective of Croatia's membership status. It tries to answer questions about: the place of Croatia in Europe; the problems of its economy; the nature of its political elite and the views of its citizens, and institutions' capacities to adapt to requirements of modern and open societies. Among the findings one could highlight: First, irrespective of the membership status, there are possibilities for Croatia to participate and even to try to act as leader in some fields (e.g. Adriatic Sea protection) and Croatian experts could participate in and contribute to the discussions of EU-relevant topics (e.g. European citizenship or communicating Europe). Second, high and stable distrust in the EU, rising unwillingness to join the EU and views concerning the EU that are more based on impressions than on utilitarian considerations might lead to a Croatian "no" to the EU in
the final moment of decision. However, if the benefits of reforms are reaped even without joining the EU, this does not have to be a disaster for the country, although it could be a serious setback for the political elite. Third, adaptation of the capabilities of Croatian institutions is
despite many improvements still the weakest spot. The progress of reforms has been limited and characterized by partiality, lack of strategies and still under strong political influences. The key words missing in almost all investigated fields are implementation, enforcement and action
plans. As the end of negotiations will more depend on the implementation than on the mere adoption of EU requirements, Croatia should turn to an "as soon as ready" instead of an "as soon as possible" policy.

This article examines the negotiation phase on two levels: First, it assesses domestic organising, the processes of adopting a negotiating position and the relevant actors involved. By a comparative analysis of the experiences from Estonia, Slovenia and Hungary, "best management" practises will be condensed. These are subsequently applied to Croatian negotiation management in order to identify potential problems. In a second step, the findings will be put into the wider context of the political consequences of the negotiation strategy, providing recommendations for alternative modes of domestic organising. It will be argued that the Croatian negotiation structure is streamlined in order to match ambitions to complete negotiations in a very short time. However, this institutional set-up concentrates one-dimensionally on executive expertise and reinforces problems in domestic representation and legitimisation. It therefore fails to accommodate to new strategic developments like enlargement-fatigue in the European Union and "euro-fatigue" in Croatia.

This paper analyses opportunities for and challenges of representing interests and the lobbying of Croatian interest groups in the decision- making processes at the European Union level. Taking into account the predominant trends and channels for the representation of interests in the competitive environment of the enlarged EU, as well as the experiences of new EU member states, the logic of access and influence of interest groups from Croatia on the EU policy-making procedures in the pre-accession period will be highlighted. The paper draws attention to the potential of the EU accession process to act as a catalyst for the Europeanisation of domestic public policy shaping and the adoption of new and modern patterns of interest articulation. It also provides incentives for considering the introduction of an adequate regulatory framework for lobbying, as a basis for legitimising the practice in Croatia.

The recognition of European citizenship by the Treaty on European Union (Treaty of Maastricht) introduced a novel legal institution into the European construction, hitherto unknown in international law. Its historical importance and nature will be analysed through different perspectives. The analysis of the structure of European citizenship reveals main advantages and disadvantages of the current concept. However, in its current form, it offers a very limited list of rights. Until recently, citizens' rights were neglected and invisible at the level of the European Union. This is especially visible in the policies towards the candidate and accession countries, which are obliged to follow certain human rights standards in order to meet the conditions for membership. The importance and meaning of European citizenship for third country
nationals has been emphasised over the last few years.

This paper deals with the characteristics of euroscepticism in Croatia, defined as a combination of distrust in the European Union and distaste for membership. An analysis of the dynamics of the two dimensions shows that initially these two factors did not coincide, but that after 2004 they converged. Starting off from a theoretical model according to which the attitude to the EU is affected by both utilitarian or pragmatic as well as ethnic-cum-nationalist (symbolic) factors, the analysis of data collected at the end of 2003 on a probabilistic national sample draws attention to the heterogeneous motives behind euroscepticism, which calls into question the effectiveness of any single intervention strategy. Exclusive nationalism and its socio-cultural, political and economic premises have been confirmed as an important source of euroscepticism. As against symbolic motivations, the impact of utilitarian motives on the attitude to the EU turned out to be marginal, but it is not clear to what extent this result is the consequence of methodological constraints. The data also show that lack of trust in the EU partially reflects distrust in national institutions. The paper concludes with a brief list of recommendations, focused particularly on ways of increasing trust in both national and EU institutions.

The paper discusses the need for the designation by the International Maritime Organization, of the Adriatic Sea as a Particularly Sensitive Sea Area (PSSA). The rationale for this inheres in the special features of the Adriatic Sea area, while the policy context has been set by the trend of European Union countries to advocate the proclamation of PSSA in marine areas surrounding Europe. Firstly, the PSSA concept is briefly reviewed and the current status of designations assessed. Secondly, the emerging policy of the EU towards PSSA proclamations is focused on and pressing reasons such as tanker accidents are highlighted; some background factors, such as the restructuring of oil transportation flows in Eurasia are commented upon. Thirdly, key features
of the Adriatic Sea as corresponding to the criteria for the designation of PSSA are explained, including the basic characteristics of the area, status and trends of international navigation here, and present and potential associated protective measures to address the risks. Also, the
Croatian initiative towards regional cooperation on an Adriatic PSSA is briefly presented. And finally, some conclusions on prospects for regional cooperation towards a PSSA in the Adriatic Sea are made, considering contrasts and commonality in that area.

This paper reviews current issues in health care policy and reform in Croatia. It analyses the microeconomic foundations of health care (characteristics of health as an essential good, market and government failures in allocation of health care services); the role of health care in the process of European Union accession; the status of health care in Croatia (health status of the population, demographic trends, health care resources); microeconomic and macroeconomic aspects of
health care financing; and recent reform proposals for the health care sector. On this basis a number of recommendations for health care reform in Croatia are formulated. The proposals refer to financial sustainability of health care in the medium and long term; the mix of general taxes and mandatory health insurance contributions as sources of public funding; the mix of public and private funding; the impact of different financing instruments on the operations of health care providers; labour market effects of different financing methods; and the political economy of health care reform.

Knowledge has become the key to economic competitiveness and success. An important part of an economy's overall competitiveness – the ability to achieve success on markets – is labour-force competitiveness. One of the main determinants of the competitiveness of human resources is a country's education system. The paper discusses EU activities related to achieving a move to a knowledge-based society and labour force competitiveness. After the introduction, a short theoretical framework is provided. The third part of the paper analyzes the situation in newly accepted EU members, in future members and in Croatia. After the assessment of some problems in Croatia, some proposals for improvements of the educational system are given.