The profile of Croatia's risks in March is still marked by the case of the runaway general Ante Gotovina, who is wanted by the UN war crimes tribunal (ICTY).
According to a press release issued by the Zagreb-based BonLine company which quotes Dun&Bradstreet assessments, "a dispute over Croatia's failure to arrest a fugitive general is jeopardising the country's entry into the EU."
"Zagreb claims it has no knowledge of Gotovina's whereabouts. However, the tribunal's chief prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, has criticised Croatia for not doing enough to arrest Gotovina. Del Ponte is due to make a written recommendation (which D&B believes is almost certain to be negative) to the EU presidency on whether to start entry talks," the press release reads.
"Other politically sensitive obstacles on Croatia's path to EU membership include the return of some 200,000 ethnic Serb refugees, who fled the country at the end of the conflict, judicial reform and the resolution of a border dispute with Slovenia," the D&B said.
It stressed that both the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and the strongest opposition party Social Democrats (SDP) were in favour of the country's entry into the EU.
"In the terms of the economy, exports remained the key driver of economic growth in '04, according to recently released official preliminary data, and D&B believes this situation is like to continue in '05." D&B said.
Croatia is placed as 11th at the D&B list for 25 eastern European countries in the D&B International Risk and Payment Review for March 2005.
Slovenia is at the top of the list with the DB2c indicator. At the bottom of the list are Albania, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan with the highest risk indicator DB6d.