Croatia's accession to the EU: An assessment of the EU conditionality and the membership process

Croatia is country with the very complex history. For a long period of time it was not independent, but included into some other state entities. When it finally became independent, Croatia faced with the politics of isolationism of president Tuđman. After his death, Croatia started to build relationship with Europe and the European Union. In this thesis, Croatia's accession to the European Union will be assessed. Croatia's path was a little bit harder than other accession state's path because in a short period of time it had to pass through the process of democratization, Europeanization and to fulfil all requirements in order to become an EU member. In this thesis, European Union's conditionality, and process of negotiating and implementing the acquis communautaire is analysed. In addition, the thesis analyses Croatia's progress after becoming a member and current political events. Also, the theory of Euroscepticism is analysed and applied on Croatia's case. Some of the main reforms which have been done are discussed – public administration, pension, healthcare and education reforms. As conclusion, current European Union-Croatia relations and how Croatia benefited from the accession are analysed. Keywords: Croatia, European Union, Accession Process, Europeanization, Euroscepticism, Reforms, Negotiations, Democratization.