Author Oliver Joy says Brussels is embracing recession-marred Croatia whose credit rating is in the junk category and which is accused of endemic corruption.
Joy quotes James Ker-Lindsay, a senior research fellow in South East European politics at the London School of Economics, as saying that "to some extent Croatia 'got lucky' and its imminent membership is down to having 'friends in the right places'."
"There's always been this sense that Croatia has had a strong champion in Germany and Austria. They have always taken a very strong position on Croatian membership," Ker-Lindsey told CNN.
The articles says "he believes some EU member states are turning a 'blind eye' to a number of Croatia's problems in favour of the political symbolism that enlargement in the Western Balkans represents."
The author says "one of the challenges facing Croatia is its growth prospects. The financial crash of 2008 brought about a harsh double-dip recession" and that "forecasts for 2012 project the economy contracted 1.9%. Unemployment peaked at 17.3% which is behind only Greece and Spain."
Croatia "relies heavily... on tourism and its state-run shipyards for revenue -- which will either face privatization or bankruptcy under the EU's accession treaty," says Joy.
Will Bartlett, a senior research fellow in the political economy of South East Europe at the London School of Economics, told CNN: "The EU will not be a panacea for Croatia's economy."
"It's very similar to Greece because it's a highly euro-ized economy... Unlike Greece they don't have access to any of the eurozone bailout funds. They're very much on their own," he added.
"Croatia is also in the midst of cleaning up a political class that is rife with corruption," the article says, adding that former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader was jailed for 10 years for bribe-taking.
The article further says that Transparency International "ranked Croatia below Rwanda, Jordan and Cuba in its Corruption Perceptions Index for 2012. But the country still came in above Italy."
Kristof Bender, deputy chairman of the policy institute, European Stability Initiative, was quoted as saying that "Croatia's progress to the 'doorstep of the European Union' is quite remarkable."
He told CNN: "We mustn't forget how bad it (Croatia) was in the 1990s. The darkest moments of war, occupation, mass killings, ethnic cleansing, and autocratic leadership and crony capitalism were all there."