ACCESSION OF CROATIA TO THE EUROPEAN UNION

1 July 2013 and Croatia's becoming full member of the European Union is a realisation of our third strategic goal from becoming independent. In the 22 years of its independence Croatia became an internationally recognised state, member of NATO and now also a full member of the European Union. We can be proud of all we - all its citizens - have achieved. 
We enter the European Union prepared like no country before us. No country before us had criteria for opening and closing of chapters; our negotiations contained more chapters than any other country before; Croatia is the first country which had a special chapter– judiciary. In this way we created standards and criteria for the countries which will participate in future stages of EU enlargement and we have also set foundations for evaluating judiciary situation in other countries members, which is a large contribution also for the functioning of the European Union.  
There were, however, moments when the membership seemed far away, even unattainable, but we have not given up in such moments because we had the consensus of all relevant political parties and citizens.  We were aware that the reforms we were undertaking were in the service of laying foundations for the institutions of the state, since only a functional state can guarantee stability and prosperity to its citizens.   
During last two decades and especially in the last 12 years when we also formally began our way toward the full membership, we were aware that this was the right way for us. Equally, we were aware that by mere accession to the European Union the job will be far from finished – just now there is a work ahead of us which should and could prove that we are trustful and relevant member of the EU family of democratic states – of the Union which in spite of all present economic difficulties still presents globally a community with best living standard. The European Union as a community has been conceived on the principle of conflict solving and reducing uncertainty i.e. as a model for attaining goals through mutual cooperation and consensus.
Full membership in the European Union has for us but also for the whole Europe an additional value – stability of the whole region, which is our task and our responsibility. Equally, the membership in the European Union will mean for us greater chances to promote our culture and language since Croatian language will become one of the twenty-four official languages of the European Union.
We can be proud of ourselves because in the last twenty two years we have  indeed achieved a lot, meaning that we now have the knowledge and the will to achieve even more in future for ourselves, our children, Croatia and Europe. 
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Vesna  Pusić, First Deputy Prime Minister  and  Minister of  Foreign and European Affairs