Croatia risks wasting EU membership momentum

Making citizens care about the EU is Europe's greatest challenge, writes Ruža Tomašić.

By Ruža Tomašic

17 Jul 2015

Before Croatia's accession process was completed, membership of the European Union was considered a huge step. Some thought that this was a step in the right direction but many thought otherwise. 

Now I think both sides would have to agree that, two years on, any momentum which existed has passed and that we have failed to capitalise on our country's membership of the EU.

If every single one of the European institutions and regulations were abolished today, the average citizen of Croatia would hardly notice. There would be no real change in their everyday lives if there was no EU at all. Changing this fact is the greatest challenge that we currently face. 

Being part of the EU must mean something to the average Croat whose earnings are modest, whose parents have small pensions and struggle every day to survive and whose children are trying to leave our country in their desperate search for jobs.

We could make this happen only by avoiding the approach of universal solutions that apply equally to all member states.

Respecting this European diversity we often brag about and having different approaches to national governments' specific problems is, I think, the best possible path to take.