Croatia country profile

Croatia's declaration of independence in 1991 was followed by four years of war and the best part of a decade of authoritarian nationalism under President Franjo Tudjman.
By early 2003 it had made enough progress in shaking off the legacy of those years to apply for EU membership, becoming the second former Yugoslav republic after Slovenia to do so.
A country of striking natural beauty with a stunning Adriatic coastline, Croatia is again very popular as a tourist destination.

Croatia's EU Accession talks were postponed because of its failure to detain Gen Ante Gotovina, wanted by the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
Croatia later got the green light for talks to proceed in October 2005. The fugitive general was arrested in Spain shortly afterwards.

Tourists flock to the medieval port of Dubrovnik

The country hopes to become a member of the EU by 2011 - representing remarkable progress since the time of Tudjman's death in December 1999, when the country was in a parlous state.
Its citizens suffered from government-backed attacks on their civil and political rights. The governing party, the HDZ, was then corrupt and the economy was in difficulties, with around 20% of Croatians unemployed.
Presidential and parliamentary elections at the beginning of 2000 ushered in politicians who pledged commitment to Croatia's integration into the European mainstream.
The constitution has been changed to shift power away from the president to the parliament. Croatia has joined the World Trade Organisation and has pledged to open up its economy. It has achieved growth and inflation is under control.
However, organised crime and mafia-linked violence have continued to be a major concern, and the government is seeking to demonstrate that it is serious about tackling the problem so as not to jeopardise its EU membership aspirations.
A dispute with Slovenia over sea and land borders dating back to the break-up of Yugoslavia also threatened to derail Croatia's journey to EU membership until June 2010, when a Slovene referendum cleared the main obstacle to Croatia's EU accession.




President: Ivo Josipovic
Social Democrat Ivo Josipovic was elected for a five-year term in January 2010. He pledged to fight corruption and help Croatia achieve EU membership.
The role of the president is largely ceremonial. He proposes the prime minister but it is for parliament to approve the nomination. The president can dissolve parliament and call elections.
Prime minister: Jadranka Kosor

Ms Kosor's government faces serious economic challenges

Parliament approved Jadranka Kosor as prime minister in July 2009, days after the unexpected resignation from the post of Ivo Sanader.
Ms Kosor, who had been deputy prime minister since 2003, is the first woman premier in the country's history.
She graduated with a law degree from Zagreb University and pursued a successful career as a print and radio journalist before entering politics in the mid-1990s.
In 2005 Ms Kosor ran for Croatia's presidency but was defeated in the second round of voting by Stipe Mesic.
A member of Mr Sanader's centre-right Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), Jadranka Kosor promised to continue her predecessor's policies.
She said she would lead the government with a "strong female hand", adding that her key task would be to fight Croatia's serious economic downturn.
Six months into her premiership, she was enjoying unprecedently high ratings in the opinion polls, but her public approval rating plummeted as unemployment reached a new high of over 10% in March 2010.


Croatia's media enjoy a high degree of independence. However, Reporters Without Borders said in 2009 that aspects of Serbo-Croat relations were off-limits for the media.
Croatian Radio-Television, HRT, is the state-owned public broadcaster and is financed by advertising and a licence fee.
Public TV is the main source of news and information. National commercial networks and dozens of private local TV stations compete for viewers. Croatia hopes to complete a transition to digital TV broadcasting by 2011. The cable and satellite market is well developed.
The radio landscape comprises three national public networks, four national commercial channels, regional public channels and more than 130 local and regional radios.
In the newspaper sector, there are six national and four regional dailies. Austrian and German concerns have large stakes in the print media.
Around 2.4 million Croatians are online (Internetworldstats.com, 2010). There are an estimated 22,000 registered websites in Croatia. The telecommunications sector is the most developed in the region.

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