Croatia formally applied for European Union membership today and hopes to join the bloc this decade.
Prime Minister Mr Ivica Racan, leader of a reformist coalition that ousted nationalists from power in 2000, handed in the request to start entry talks to Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis, whose country presides over the union until July.
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"Croatia is formalising its strategic goal of becoming an integral part of this new political entity," Mr Racan said after submitting the one-page paper co-signed by President Mr Stjepan Mesic.
The application was accompanied by a multimedia CD with facts on Croatia, pictures of its scenic Adriatic coast and its best-known athletes, including former Wimbledon champion Mr Goran Ivanisevic.
Croatia, a country of 4.4 million people, won independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 but then fought a four-year war with its rebel Serb minority. It remained isolated during the nationalist rule of late President Mr Franjo Tudjman, who died in 1999.
Apart from Slovenia, which is among the first ex-communist countries due to join the bloc in 2004, Croatia is the only other former Yugoslav republic to apply to the EU since the socialist federation collapsed in ethnic bloodshed in 1991.
"United Europe is an unprecedented challenge of the new era and Croatia has a right to participate in this magnificent process," Mr Racan said.
AFP