Hailing from sunny Split on the Adriatic coast, a popular tourist destination home to about 200,000 the harsh Ukrainian winter was a shock for Croatian Ambassador Tomislav Vidosevic, who began his posting in Kyiv on Sept. 15.
It wasn’t the only difference. Language was one, another was the country’s scale. Croatia, with roughly 4.4 million people, is about 10 times smaller than Ukraine. Moreover, with no prior East European experience, Ukraine was “a challenge,” Tomislav said. Previously he was the ambassador to Italy.
Despite the diversity, however, the two countries have many things in common, the timeliest of which are their European aspirations. They also have a history of supporting each other.
Ukraine, along with Latvia, was the first country to recognize Croatian independence in early December 1991, before international recognition came in 1992. On July 1, a little more than 20 years later, the former Yugoslav republic is entering the European Union.
But Croatia’s looming ascension to the 27-nation European Union wasn’t easy. Four years of sporadic, but often intense, fighting between Croatia and Serbia followed independence, before a UN-brokered deal settled the situation. And it took a decade of negotiations with the EU, with many hurdles to get over. In April 2009, Croatia joined NATO, after which it signed the EU Accession Treaty in December 2011 and ratified the treaty in January 2012.
The latest was its economic situation, as the country is in the throes of its worst recession in two decades: high unemployment is driving youth out of the country, its credit rating was downgraded to “junk” late in 2012 by Standard and Poor’s rating agency and both public and private debt has risen sharply.
Some experts believe this will make Croatia an additional burden on the already struggling EU nations.
This means many Croatians see little reason to celebrate. According to an early June poll by Zagreb-based researcher Ipsos Puls, just 7 percent of Croatians would like to mark the country’s entrance into the EU with fireworks, while 42 percent said no celebration at all was necessary.
Nevertheless, Croatia’s EU entrance is a good thing, Vidosevic said.
“We are becoming a member of the strongest association of big nation states that exists today, with a huge market,” he told the Kyiv Post. “I think this will provide huge advantages (for Croatia’s economy) and for the EU.”
Vidosevic believes Ukraine could reap similar benefits if it signs a much anticipated Association Agreement with the EU at a summit in Vilnius this fall.
On that front, Croatia will do everything it can to help Ukraine ink the deal, he said.
“Of course we would like to see our neighbors moving toward (the) EU, but they will need to pass through the same things as we did,” the ambassador said. “I think (Ukraine) is going in the right direction, and I think Croatia can be a really good example for it.”
The messages coming from all levels of Ukraine’s government “are very clear and pro European,” he continued. “What you can understand from that is that the government is doing everything to meet (the expectations of the EU) and get to that goal (of signing the Association Agreement with the EU).”
Shifting to the topic of bilateral relations, Vidosevic called the relationship between Croatia and Ukraine “very, very good” and said common positions have strengthened ties over the years.
Among these are geopolitical issues, which he said will continue to be challenging, even as a part of the EU.
“The worst thing that can happen to a country is being on the border of something,” he said. “We want to be an integrated society.”
Ukraine signing the Association Agreement would mean it being less of a borderland, he added. Already, though, he feels as though Ukraine is a European country.
“I am here in Kyiv and I can say I feel like I am in Europe,” he said.
One area in which he hopes to see improvement is trade. Total trade between Croatia and Ukraine amounted to just $90 million in 2012, with no serious investment.
Specifically, he would like to see quality Croatian products brought to the Ukrainian market. “Another area where we need to talk and develop is the energy sector,” he added. “Everyone needs alternative sources of energy.”
Tourism is another potential driver of growth. More than 70,000 Ukrainians visited Croatia in 2012. He hopes this will grow after Croatia opens five new visa centers around Ukraine to make applications easier for Ukrainians not living in Kyiv.
But joining the EU will present another barrier, as the country is forced to apply the bloc’s visa regime for all citizens of non-EU countries.
Circling back to the topic of EU integration, Vidosevic said he was hopeful that Ukraine would follow Croatia’s lead, but it was on the country’s government to do so.
For now, though, it is only Croatia joining the bloc – the second former Yugoslav country to do so after Slovenia. The ambassador will celebrate the ascension on July 1 in Kyiv, alongside Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine Jan Tombinski.
Kyiv Post editor Christopher J. Miller can be reached at [email protected], and on Twitter at @ChristopherJM.
