Albanians proud, Croats cool on joining NATO

Croatia and Albania are the newest members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.  According to this article, Albania has shown much more enthusiasm with regard to its membership.  While Albanians are brimming with pride, Croatia still has its sights set on EU membership, which has been a goal for quite some time.  Albania, one of the poorest countries in Europe, views NATO membership as great progress.  For Croatia, however, there was very little excitement over its membership, as it will not do much for Croatia's EU membership.  While this may be the goal, the progress of NATO membership is a positive sign.  And the lack of excitement shows the progress Croats have come to expect, especially when compared to a poor country like Albania.  Hopefully, the talks with Slovenia will continue, and EU membership is somewhere on the horizon for Croatia.

- Matt Orminski (Croatia)

Croatia: Slovenia OKs accession to NATO

On Friday, Slovenia “formally ratified Croatia’s accession to NATO,” allowing the country to join the alliance as scheduled next week. This is significant because, last week, a border dispute with Slovenia threatened to impede Croatia’s admittance. While the Slovenian government continue to maintain that it supported Croatia joining NATO, a nationalist group, the Party of the Slovenian Nation, strongly opposed. This group attempted to quickly gather the 40,000 signatures needed to “force a referendum on Croatia’s NATO bid,” but, by the Thursday deadline, ultimately fell short.

This is not Croatia’s first disagreement with Slovenia – in December, Slovenia vetoed Croatia’s European Union bid.

I found two articles describing these events: one from an English-language Ukrainian newspaper and one from the New York Times. I find it very interesting that the New York Times article is significantly shorter and less detailed…

-- Ellen Leto

Croatia's Prime Minister To Meet With Obama

Croatia's Prime Minister, Ivo Sanadar, could very well be the first Croatian official to meet with the new United States' President Barack Obama. The meeting is scheduled for the end of March.

According to the article in the Croatian Times, United States President Barack Obama was surprised by Slovenia's attitude towards Croatia after discussions of blocking EU attainment. Not only that, but also the setback in entering NATO. The Slovenian Parliament approved the procedure on February 9th. The United States projects that it will obtain the appropriate documents this month.

Euro-Atlantic integration would be encouraged, as well as American-Croatia alliance, as a result of this meeting between Barack Obama and Ivo Sanadar.

Kelly Witmer
Croatia Group

Croatia: False stories about EU officials? Maybe not a good idea.

As Lindsay metioned, Croatia is currently a candidate for European Union membership and hopes to gain access by 2011. According to the report on Croatian press freedom by the International Freedom of Expression eXchange, the country has made human rights improvements because of this candidacy. Unfortunately, Croatian press still seems to suffer from corruption.

According to the Copenhagen Post, two Croatian newspapers have recently accused Bo Eric Weber, the Danish ambassador to Croatia, of attempting to block Croatia’s admittance to the EU. This story seems to have stemmed from a conflict over a Danish factory in Croatia that is considered to be dangerous to health and the environment. Weber, however, completely denies these claims and has asked for a correction to the article. In a Croatian Times article, Weber is quoted as saying, "Unfortunately, this is an example of very bad journalism based on non-ethical behaviour. If [the author] Mr. Grakalic had contacted the Danish embassy beforehand, the false story would never have been written."

This shows a definite weakness in Croatia’s standards of professional journalism. I can only imagine that false stories, particularly those involving EU officials, will hurt their admission.

-- Ellen Leto (Croatia)

Croatia: Blocked from NATO and EU

There is concern that politics in Slovenia might prevent China from formally joining NATO in early April.  Nato Secretary General Jaapde Hoop Scheffer said. "... we might not see a situation at the summit in Strasbourg and Kehl that we can greet Albania and Croatia in the NATO family."

The article further explains that although Slovenian lawmakers approved Croatia's entry to NATO, two nationalist groups in Slovenia petitioned for a referendum on Croatia's NATO membership, do to territorial disputes.  For this act to be successful the two groups need 40,000 votes and have 5 weeks to acquire these.  The NATO summit however was barely six weeks away when the petition was filed, making Croatia's acceptance a possible delay regardless if the referendum is successful or not.

According to Bloomberg Press, Slovenia's government has also stalled Croatia from joining the EU, and aims to do the same with NATO.  The admission of Croatia into both the EU and NATO are strongly encouraged, as stated on Freedom House.  Croatia has worked to facilitate the return of refugees, repair war-damaged houses, and improve minority rights in order to meet the conditions for European Union accession (found on Freedom House).

Lindsey Nass (Croatia)