The conference is the central event of the Europe Week which will be celebrated in all major Croatian cities from 2 to 10 May 2006.
The event is attended by senior officials of Croatia and the European Commission, including Croatian President Stjepan Mesic and the head of the EC Delegation in Croatia, Vincent Degert, former negotiators from new EU member states and members of the academic community. The closing statement will be given by Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader.
Two years after the biggest wave of European enlargement, they will discuss its impact on both the Union as a whole and, in particular, on the ten new Member States. The experience of the latter that joined the EU in May 2004 is invaluable for Croatia as a candidate country.
The conference will try to provide answers to questions related to the real consequences of the fifth enlargement of the European Union, concrete changes in the new Member States, economic and political consequences of the enlargement, and its influence on the Union"s policy toward the South Eastern European countries. The participants in the conference will also discuss the effect of the EU accession on the political, economic and social process and structures within the acceding countries as well as candidate countries, bearing in mind the specific characteristics of the negotiations and reforms required.
One of the objectives of the discussion is to identify the different features of Croatia"s EU accession as compared to the countries that went through the same process in the past, as well as to present the current state and the main problems and challenges of the Croatian EU accession negotiations.
The EC Delegation in Croatia organised the event in cooperation with the Institute for International Relations and Trans European Policy Studies Association (TEPSA), to mark Europe Day, which is being celebrated on 9 May.
On 9 May 1950, French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman presented his proposal on the pooling of the coal and steel production within the framework of a new, supra-national organisation - the European Community. In that post-war, unstable and tense period, the aim of such a community was not just the creation of a common market in coal and steel but, also, the preservation of peace. The Schuman declaration is thus the first document that initiated the gradual joining together of the Western European countries into a regionally growing and politically more inter-linked community - the present European Union.
The enlargement is one of the most powerful political tools of the European Union. It is a carefully planned process that helps the transformation of the countries involved as well as the preservation of peace, stability, prosperity, democracy, human rights and rule of law in Europe. With the official start of the Croatian EU accession negotiations in October 2005, Croatia"s European perspective was confirmed.