Publication

This paper discusses the difficult relations between Croatia and the European Union, over the issue of Croatian cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and contingent EU accession negotiations. The author details the decision of the EU to hinge Croatian accession negotiations to full government cooperation in the case of fugitive war criminal General Ante Gotovina. The paper states that political conditionality as used by the EU may work in the Gotovina case, but would not be likely to influence the factor of overall reconciliation. The author also explains that the prolongation of political conditionality or lack of a timely initiation of accession negotiations could have serious economic consequences for Croatia.