Everyone will be pleased by the progress that Croatia is making in the completion of its accession process. Key areas of governance must be adapted to the requirements of the acquis and some of these changes, let's be clear about this, are likely to go against the grain of tradition and expectations. Negotiating the transformation demands a major act of political will. Let me add that the effort is well worthwhile, especially for a relatively small state, like Croatia or, for that matter, the other states of the Western Balkans. EU membership provides a set of advantages in political, economic, cultural and even security terms.

 

The greatest problem of adaptation, though, lies elsewhere. It is one thing to change the structures of governance, but it is a very different matter to change the attitudes of society to something radically different, to the forms that have been developed in the EU over the last six decades. The two are frequently far from each other and there will certainly be elements in society, some quite powerful ones at that, which will see only disadvantages for themselves in the new dispensation. So let there be no illusions about this - the Croatian authorities have not only to complete their negotiations with the EU, but at the same time they must equally do what they can to change social attitudes. That may turn out to be the harder task.