Relations of the Republic of Croatia with EU Countries (1992-1999)

Abstract

This article considers a development and peculiar properties of relations of the Republic of Croatia with European Union countries from the moment of this state’s international recognition on 15 January 1992 to the first Croatian president Franjo Tudjman’s death on 10 December 1999. The main attention is paid to those Western European countries, that played the most significant role in dealing with the crisis on the territory of former Yugoslavia and that had the most crucial place in Zagreb’s foreign policy during the first decade of Croatian independence: Federal Republic of Germany, Austria, France, Great Britain, Italy, Sweden and Vatican (however, the two last are not EU members). The attitude of these countries towards Croatia’s diplomatic goals during 1990ies and the dynamics of their relations with Croatian government, that weren’t constant, are analyzed in this article. The special attention is focused on the reasons of firm German and Austrian support for Croatia at the very beginning of its independence and their significant humanitarian aid for Croats during the war. From the other hand, there are explained reasons of skeptical and cold French and British position on Croatian question and the role of the history in Italian-Croatian relations after 1990. And, of course, Croatian problems and real obstacles in relations with Western European countries and with prospective of European integration during the presidency of Franjo Tudjman (that were really pessimistic) are also considered in this article. The newest researches of Croatian and other foreign authors on Croatian foreign policy in 1990ies were used for preparing this small research, as well as materials of foreign media, mostly Western and Croatian.