Lately, Croatia has been experiencing devastating earthquakes leaving a heavily traumatized population and destroyed cities. The EU has been fast to activate the Civil Protection Mechanism (CPM) and assist the most affected Sisak-Moslavina County bordering Bosnia-Herzegovina (B&H). The non-EU member states of the Western Balkans also offered assistance through many ad-hoc initiatives, showing their solidarity with the Croatian people already financially and psychologically exhausted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemics. Consequently, Croatia could use the present natural disaster solidarity and transform it into a much stronger Croatia-led initiative to advance the regional EU enlargement.
On December 29, 2020, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake strike Croatia some 30 miles southeast of Zagreb, with its epicenter close to Petrinja, Sisak, and Glina. The EU activated CPM a day after, providing housing containers, winterized tents, sleeping bags, beds, and electrical heaters to the affected region’s population. This help adds to the continuous EU assistance Croatia has received to restore essential infrastructures and services via the EU Solidarity Fund (EUSF), established after the earthquake that hit Zagreb earlier in 2020. Concurrently, non-EU Western Balkans countries have offered state-initiated donations, individually-raised funds, and support messages to Croatia. While Croatia acknowledges its neighbors’ empathy, it could also use the momentum to demonstrate the region’s interconnectivity with the EU and strengthen the EU enlargement argument presented at the Zagreb EU-Western Balkans summit on May 6, 2020.
During the summit, the EU leaders reconfirmed their support for the Western Balkans’ European perspective, with Croatia explicitly asking for B&H to receive an EU candidate country status. The recent earthquake in Sisak-Moslavina County demonstrated the Croatia-B&H natural cohesion as the northwestern B&H cities of Kozarska Dubica, Banja Luka, and Kostajnica had also felt the consequences of the seismic movements. Since only an economically and politically stable B&H might provide significant help to its neighbors, Croatia should continue to push for B&H’s EU accession by presenting the people’s borderless solidarity following the B&H official support for the Sisak-Moslavina County. This initiative would make Croatia a true EU regional enlargement leader willing to bring the Western Balkans closer to the EU. Furthermore, it would unite the Western Balkans countries in their response to future natural disasters.
Croatia should act proactively and resolve open questions with its neighbors or set them aside as secondary to the regional EU enlargement perspective. This approach would increase solidarity among the Western Balkans countries, decrease enlargement- and Euro-skepticism, and strengthen its role among the other member states as the intermediary negotiating the regional EU accession. Croatia would also enhance its response in future floods, earthquakes, and other natural disasters with economically and politically much stronger neighbors such as B&H. Finally, this Croatia-led initiative would set a new standard in regional relations aiming for the Western Balkans’ stability, security, and prosperity within the EU.