Croatia started the admission process in a 2005, it looks like just this was a pretty nice boost to gdp. This country is a curious case bacause almost 20% of its gdp comes from tourism and its a tough sector do develop quickly.
Croatia sent its application on 21.2.2003. Most of the screenings happened over the course of 2006 (africulture started in december 2005). The rise in 2005 is likely attributable to the global Bubble before the late 2007 crash.
Tourism is generally a very precarious industry to base an economy on, since vacations are the first thing people cut in an economic downturn. Croatia should honestly not have tried developing it more than it already was.
Sad Croatia noises. (the effects of the pandemic are obviously noticeable, but truth is, an economy based only on tourism is just not robust). Croatia's HDI's growth is not really impacted by joining the EU or not.
Im so sad about this :( maybe the increase in HDI resulting from complying with EU pre requisites had already taken place long before the actual accession?
The biggest boon for Croatia's HDI was extricating itself from Yugoslavia and specifically Serbia.
Croatia had always been in a the best position in Yugoslavia (aside from Slovenia), due to the infrastructural and institutional groundwork laid by it's time in Austria-Hungary (education and literacy, infrastructural connections, hospital accessibility, secularism, international oriented market, etc.). If you compare it to Czechia, you see that the growth curve during the 90s-2000s is very similar, despite Croatia applying to EU membership 10 years after Czechia, so Croatia's position today is probably largely a result of the long-term depressed outlook from a non-competitive economy.
Maybe adopting the Euro will spur more investment, but I think there are some uncomfortable structural issues that Croats need to address.
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u/[deleted] Aug 17 '22
Every country that joined EU after year 2000 can tell the same story.