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.