December 11, 2022 - It's been just over thirty years, but with Croatia's entry into the Schengen area and adoption of the Euro both happening on January 1st, 2023, it's clear that this country has fulfilled almost all of its realistic international integration goals.

Let's not kid ourselves, G7 is not a realistic goal (and Croatia is already a member of the G20, through the somewhat complicated relationship of the EU with that international organisation). So, the only international organisation remaining where Croatia has applied for membership, but will not be a full member yet as of January 1st, 2023 is the OECD.

In early 2022 the 30th anniversary of Croatian United Nations membership was marked. During the years, almost all other international integrations the Croatians were hoping for happened, one at a time, with the biggest one happening in 2013, with the Croatian accession to the EU. 

Last week's news of the Croatian entry into the Schengen area, paired with the introduction of Euro in Croatia, both happening in weeks, marks the end of the aspirations for Croatia. As for the aforementioned OECD, the application was formally sent in January of 2022, and the official and unofficial sources estimate it will take 3-6 years to meet all of the requirements to join the 38-member Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Croatian Exterior Ministry is in charge of those negotiations, which are not supposed to be easy, and it was reported earlier that Croatia was able to meet 39 out of the 260 legal "requirements".

One of the Croatian Twitter members posted a helpful chart, showing Croatia's position within the international integration in Europe, pointing out how Croatia is currently in the "inner circle" of all of the European countries, distancing itself even further from Bulgaria and Romania.

Od 2023. smo u najužem krugu eurointegracija. Do sada smo bili uz bok s Rumunjskom i Bugarskom. pic.twitter.com/7lwCxkcaq3

— Marko Božac (@markobozac) December 10, 2022

Some sceptics have, of course, taken the opportunity to point out that now, with (almost) all of the Croatian external goals taken care of, maybe the government could dedicate itself to solving some of the internal goals in the near future.

March the 26th, 2022 - When it comes to the current crisis facing Ukraine following neighbouring Russia's invasion last month, many believe that the complicated processed involving formalities for Croatian Ukraine refugee integration must now be scrapped.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Brnic writes, the unprecedented influx of refugees from Ukraine presents a current very real challenge across the EU and non-EU Europe, as although Ukrainians are interested in getting involved quickly in normal life in their new countries, including gaining legal employment, potential employers offering them jobs has been plagued with complicated red tape. Successful Croatian Ukraine refugee integration relies on the typical draconian processes in this country being cut down significantly.

After the formal application and obtaining an ID card, which gives Ukrainian refugees opportunity to open a Croatian bank account, it is inevitable that they will then need to have the basic documentation for contracting certain jobs, from certificates of competency to diplomas, and this is proving to be a problem. As such, there are already calls for a model to simplify and speed up the inevitable formalities that face displaced Ukrainians here.

People fleeing grenades naturally didn't think to pick up and bring certificates or diplomas or notarised copies to Croatia with them, and on the other hand, for a large number of activities in this country, it is still necessary to go through the nostrification procedure.

These formalities are already a problem for overall Croatian Ukraine refugee integration and especially for jobs that require certificates of secondary education. For example, a large retail chain that wants to hire Ukrainian workers is still pending a decision because the applicant hasn't yet been issued an ID card or an OIB, nor do they have a certificate confirming their completion of secondary education in Ukraine.

Complex cases

Even more complex are the cases for jobs that are in the register of regulated professions, for which it is necessary to obtain certificates from the competent institutions on the recognition of foreign professional qualifications, and there are about 280 professions on that list for Croatia.

These procedures are the most demanding and rigid in the cases of doctors of medicine. Even before the coronavirus pandemic, these processes were complex and time-consuming, under the jurisdiction of various state bodies, and now many would-be employers are hoping that this will be an opportunity for it to improve the system in general.

Anny Brusic, the director of the HUP Association of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, has stated that employers expect the state to make a decision for Ukrainians to not need certificates for certain occupations. "In this situation, it can be possible to introduce a mentoring system for occupations that require certificates, it can be a good and effective solution," said Brusic.

For weeks, the European Commission (EC) has been asking national bodies to find solutions to determine the equivalence of both European and Ukrainian qualifications frameworks, and is considering new guidelines to facilitate the recognition of professional qualifications acquired in Ukraine. It is also a priority to provide assistance to persons interested in vocational training and retraining, in order to enable those who are interested in overcoming any lack of certain skills as easily and quickly as possible.

EBRD coordination

Here in Croatia, these activities are coordinated by the EBRD and involve representatives of the private sector, NGOs, while public employment services, in this country's case the CES, will play a key role in assisting newcomers from Ukraine in determining their skills, qualifications and connecting them with job possibilities.

For more, check out our politics section.