On July 1, the European Union gains another state: Croatia.

At a time where the EU is not exactly the most attractive road to take for its neighbours – Iceland has announced that it has suspended its application for membership – the gain is remarkable.

Indeed, there are still countries where membership of the European Union remains a goal, even though we are far from the enchantmenting “big bang” of 2004 – the simultaneous entry of 10 new countries – and the "mini bang" of 2007, when two more came in. True, the move was felt to be vital by the countries of the former Communist bloc that were keen to finally turn this page and rejoin the “common” European home as fast as possible.

The choice of the new members and candidate countries is no doubt more pragmatic, but it shows that the EU does still have a power of attraction, due to the lack of alternatives: what European country today would like to find themselves alone, or in the orbit of Russia?

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How are the Croats finding joining the European Union? What are the issues and who are our new colleagues? To try to understand and to celebrate the entry of the 28th member state, Presseurop has joined up with the Rijeka newspaper Novi List, one of our favorite news sources in Croatia. Each day of the week from June 24 to July 1, Presseurop will publish an article from Novi List dealing with Croatia and its accession, translated into 10 languages. The articles will be accompanied by images created in Croatia by the Italian photographer Eloisa D'Orsi. Meanwhile, Novi List will publish a selection of articles from the European press on the same subject, to give readers in Croatia an insight into how their neighbours see the accession.

So good reading, and welcome! Dobrodošli!

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