President of National Committee for Monitoring of Accession Negotiations, Ms. Vesna Pusić met with members of Academy for Political Development to discuss the latest developments regarding Croatia's EU accession. The meeting was held in Croatian Parliament on 10. July 2008.

The EU enlargement process is usually considered to be meritocratic – once the country meets the membership criteria, it enters the EU community. However, the Croatia's accession negotiations seem to be much more complex: besides meeting the terms, the process is affected by the EU’s constitutional crisis, particular interests of some member states, poor progress of  anti-corruption measures in Romania and Bulgaria, stability of Balkans and other factors.

Following  the enlargement of 2004. and 2007., the EU  hasn’t managed to ratify the Constitutional Treaty, and only recently the Treaty of Lisbon has failed to pass the Irish referendum. As the EU under French presidency prioritizes the issue, both Poland and Germany have recently declined to ratify the Lisbon Treaty.

How is Croatia handling the current situation, in both formal and informal conditions of joining the EU? What is being done and what should be done to speed up the process? And finally, what would postponing of enlargement process mean for political and economic development of Croatia?

   
These and many other questions were addressed during this highly informative discussion of Ms. Vesna Pusić and young leaders from politics, public service, media, civil society and business. The result was a clear insight in one of the most important topics of public discourse in Croatia.