By Martin Banks - 1st February 2012
The Croatian government has made huge progress in the fight against corruption
Charles Tannock
A hearing in parliament has been told that Croatia's suitability for joining the EU "should be put under the spotlight".
The debate on Wednesday heard that corruption in the Balkan state is "rampant and significant at all levels" and that transparency is "non-existent".
Joel Anand Samy, one of the speakers, said the country was "following the same path" as Greece, adding, "This is a scourge affecting not only Croatian taxpayers, but one that will also affect taxpayers in Europe when it joins the EU."
The hearing comes in the wake of last week's referendum on EU membership. Some 44 per cent of Croatia's citizens participated in the poll with around 60 per cent supporting the "yes" vote.
According to Croatia's government, only three out of 10 Croatians voted to join the EU. The country of 4.2m people is set to become the 28th EU member state in 2013.
Anand Samy, of the international leaders summit, told the hearing, "Over the last two years not a single economic or judicial law has been fully implemented in Croatia.
"Yes, Croatia passes laws in order to tick the right boxes, but it is another thing when it comes to actually implementing them.
"It is for this reason that we believe Croatia's suitability for accession should be put under the spotlight."
On the economic front, he added, "Croatia's out of control government spending, the VAT tax hike, avalanche of new punitive taxes on already overly burdened taxpayers, the nation's sovereign and foreign debt and persistent high unemployment will adversely affect Croatia's and EU member's taxpayers."
His comments were echoed by another speaker, Natasha Srdoc, of the Adriatic institute for public policy, who said the relatively low turn out in the 22 January referendum was because "most Croatians believe the EU accession process to be corrupt."
She also said that international pressure to tackle corruption in the country "had not worked".
She highlighted several "challenges", including the 917,323 "illegal" votes which it claims determined some 70 seats in Croatia's parliamentary assembly in December 2011.
When recently asked whether Croatia was ready to join the EU, enlargement commissioner Štefan Füle responded by stating he believed Croatia would be "ready to fully assume the responsibility of the membership" by July 2013.
However, in light of the European commission's assessment of Croatia's preparedness to join the EU, there have been serious concerns raised about Zagreb's failures to press forward with verifiable economic and judicial reforms.
Srdoc said, "The lessons of Bulgaria and Romania's early EU accession proved problematic and an embarrassment for the EU as reforms were later reversed in the two southeast European nations.
ECR member Roger Helmer, a co-organiser of the hearing, said he had "serious doubts" about Croatia's suitability for EU membership.
However, party colleague Charles Tannock, who also attended the meeting, said he supported its accession, adding, "The Croatian government has made huge progress in the fight against corruption."
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