JULY 2013 | 11INTERVIEW

1. On July 1, 2013 Croatia will be-come the 28th member of the EU. What does this membership mean to your country?

Since declaring our independence in 1991, our strategic goal was to be-come a fully pledged member of the European Union.

Croatian citizens have perceived

the EU as a community of nations and values to which Croatia has al-ways belonged historically and cul-turally, and we were committed to transforming our society according to EU norms and standards in order to ensure our citizens freedom, peace and stability, the highest standards of rule of law, democracy and perspec-tive of economic progress. 2. Croatia was the first country to negotiate EU membership under the stricter enlargement policy. Which requirements did your coun-try have to meet to achieve the EU membership?

With accession negotiations, the EU was directing and supervising overall reforms in Croatia with the final aim to help us to develop our ability of proper functioning within the EU. According to the final as-sessment of European Commission, Croatia is completely prepared for EU membership and we dare to say that we are the best prepared country so far.

Our formal EU path started with the signing of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement in October 2001. Negotiations were conducted with 27 member states; the acquis communautaire has grown in volume and substance.

Instead of the previous 31, Croa-tia had 35 negotiating chapters with 400 opening and closing benchmarks. Chapter 23 Judiciary and Fundamen-

tal Rights was introduced to Croatia without aquis.

Also, Croatia was the first country with a monitoring mechanism be-tween the closing of negotiation talks and the accession.

In the end, this newly applied methodology resulted in far-reaching and irreversible reforms, which were undertaken in virtually all segments of the Croatian society.3. How would you describe the re-lationship between Croatia and the Netherlands?

Relations between our countries are friendly and very good, with no open issues but with a great potential for partnership.

We highly appreciate the technical support of the Netherlands during the accession talks and we are interested in developing a specific and overall alliance with the Netherlands bilat-erally as well as within the EU. As maritime nations, we have so much in common that our economies and societies could easily complement each other. With this ambition, we have intensified our political dialogue in the last few years by exchanging parliamentary and executive level vis-its. For example, just last month, Cro-atian Deputy Prime Minister Mimica visited Deputy Prime Minister Ass-cher and Minister Timmermans rep-resented the Netherlands in Zagreb on the occasion of the Accession Cel-ebration.

4. Which sectors of Croatia’s econo-my do you consider the most prom-ising for Dutch exporters? Is there already import and export between the two countries?

Trade exchange is growing and values approximately half a million euro per year with dominant Croatian export products being boats, ships, antibiotics, pharmaceutical products, mineral fuels and oils, footwear, elec-trical machinery and equipment.

At the same time Croatia imports from the Netherlands tobacco, meat, live animals, fertilisers and of course plants, bulbs and flowers. The Nether-lands is the second largest investor in Croatia, but our business potential is much greater than you can read from current figures.5. Did Croatia heavily suffer from the war? Which were the conse-quences in broad outline?

The war affected overall Croatian society, besides great human trag-edies, hundreds of thousands of refu-gees and displaced persons, millions of implanted land mines, destruction of infrastructure and cultural heri-tage, Croatia’s economy suffered bad-ly during the 1991-1995 war.

However, with the tremendous efforts of our citizens, we were able to overcome this extremely difficult phase of our history and today we are an example of stability and tolerance with experience, capacity and capa-bility to help our proper and wider

neighbours. 6. Does the Croatian language re-semble other Slavic languages?

Croatian language belongs to the family of Slavic languages, meaning that we can more or less understand all other Slavic languages and we are very proud that Croatian language has become 24th official language of the EU.7. There is a story that “cravat” comes from Croatia, what can you tell us about it?

The word “cravat” is thought to have come from the French word for Croat. The story goes back to the ear-ly 1600s, when Croatian mercenaries began to serve in France. They used to wear scarves around their necks, tied in a knot, as part of their uni-form, which then quickly spread as a fashion accessory. The French named the style “á la Croate”, the Croatian style. 8. Which are the most important cities and what are the main tourist attractions?

The capital and the largest city is Zagreb, followed by Split, Ri-jeka, Osijek, Zadar and Pula. Along the coastline, there are around 100 old Roman cities, among them our UNESCO protected sites in the cit-ies of Split, Dubrovnik, Porec, Trogir, Šibenik, Hvar, the natural site of Plit-vice Lakes and many other hidden beauties that just need to be discov-ered.

Croatia, newest member of the EUIn this interview, Nanda Jagusiak-Monteiro speaks with the Ambassador of Croatia, H.E. Mrs. Vesela Mrđen Korać.

H.E. Mrs. Vesela Mrđen Korać with her spouse Mr. Marko Korać.