ACCESSION OF THE REUBLIC OF CROATIA TO NATO

Motif: Digital and Dispersed Map of Croatia and the NATO Alliance Logo The North Atlantic Treaty (NATO) was signed on April 4, 1949. NATO was established at the height of a Cold War when it became obvious that cooperation from the time of anti Hitler coalition was abandoned; and when the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe tried to create a new coalition of nations «national democracies» and that the Marshal plan and the Truman doctrine served as the basis for gathering those who accepted the Euro Atlantic idea of development and co-operation. The Treaty was signed for an undetermined period of time and consisted of only 14 articles. The provisions of these articles confirmed the freedom and security to all the members, pointing out the need to accept mutual values recognised in democratic functioning of societies. Pursuant to Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation any threat to security to any country member is considered as a threat to any of the other country members, whereby its member states agree to mutual defence in response to any external party. The Alliance is referring to Article 51 of the United Nation Charter where it is elaborated that nothing shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the UN Security Council has taken necessary measures. The Treaty anticipates that any European country is given the possibility to become a NATO member under the condition that it be unanimously invited and accepted into NATO and shall deposit the instrument of accession to NATO with the American Government. First signatories of the Treaty in Washington on April 4, 1949 were: Belgium, Denmark, France, Island, Italy, Canada, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, USA and Great Britain. Turkey and Greece became NATO members in 1952; The Federal Republic of Germany in 1955 and Spain in 1982 after deposing General Franco’s dictatorship, In the years of the Cold War, NATO had a strong defensive role and the military dimension was at the forefront. However with international tensions subsiding some changes in international relations were announced and the so called Harmels report in 1957 pointed out a political unity of the NATO members. During the détente years NATO members would be an important actor in the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (OESS) process and also after the fall of the European socialist system in 1989 and SSSR. In 1991 NATO remained the sole military and political alliance in Europe. Almost all of the Eastern European countries, except Russia and Belarus, applied to be accepted into NATO and the intensive process of the NATO expansion had begun. After Clinton organised a Partnership for Peace in 1994 as a preparatory stage for the accession to NATO, the first new members in 1999 were Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary. After March 2004 Bulgaria, Rumania, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia became full members. At a meeting in Bucharest in 2008 the invitation was extended to Albania and Croatia and the process of Macedonia’s accession to NATO was placed on hold until the subject of the official name of Macedonia shall be resolved. NATO functions on the principle of inter-government co-operation, and decisions are adopted by a consensus, on the basis of consent among all the member states. Full sovereignty is preserved of all the member states including their independence even at the price that the democratic principle in some cases slows down actual action. The headquarters of NATO is in Brussels, and the Military Committee in Mons (Belgium). Although Croatia placed as a goal in the foundation of its foreign policy documents the accession to Euro Atlantic Integrations: NATO EU, it was only after democratic changes began in 2000 that Croatia was invited to Partnership for Peace and the Euro Atlantic Partnership Committee. That same year, Croatia became a member of PARP (Process for Peace Planning and Review) and only the year after that NATO accepted the first Croatian individual partnership program. In 2003 Croatia along with Albania and Macedonia signed the American-Adriatic Charter, evidence that the USA is backing the accession of the three states in NATO. By fulfilling all the criteria stated in the Membership Action Plan (MAO) Croatia received an invitation in Bucharest for meetings in Strasbourg and Kiel on 3-4- April 2009, which will enable Croatia to become a full member of a democratic, industrialized and far reaching Western World!