Original scientific paper

The Zagreb Summit and Croatian foreign policy

Damir Grubiša

Abstract

The policy of the six-parties Croatian coalition government, after the 2000 parliamentary and presidential elections, opened the country and made possible a real transition from a nationalist post-communist impasse towards a democratic society. The response from the West was immediate and supportive showing that democracy is superior to the authoritarian rule. The idea of a summit of the European Union to be devoted to the development of the South-east European Region underwent several changes, from the idea of a “Balkan Summit” in the first place, subsequently turning to the idea of a “Western-Balkan Summit”, to be eventually fixed as the “Zagreb Summit”. The controversies were not only semantic: the idea of a Balkan summit opened the dilemma about the participants - who would be the participants. The aim of the European Union is to create a situation in which military conflict will become “unthinkable” and thereby to expand to South-east Europe the area of peace, stability, prosperity and freedom which the fifteen member states have created in the past fifty years. The Zagreb summit was called a “historic meeting”: a meeting of this kind in the Croatian capital would have been unthinkable a year ago, since Croatia was isolated from the rest of Europe and alienated from much of the rest of the region. The Zagreb Summit was a turning point for the whole region and its future implementation will be a test for each country in the region.

Keywords

Croatia; European Union; EU; foreign policy; international relations; democracy; transition

Hrčak ID:

7107

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/7107

Publication date:

1.7.2000.

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