The New York Times wrote on January 22, 2012:

"Croats voted by a two-to-one margin on Sunday to join the European Union, signaling that the bloc retains its allure despite the debt crisis engulfing the euro currency that many of its members use.

"The state referendum commission said that with almost all the votes counted, about 66 percent in Croatia supported membership, while 33 percent were opposed and 1 percent of the ballots were invalid. The commission put the turnout at about 44 percent of eligible voters.

"Once seen as a sure route to prosperity, membership in the union has been tarnished lately by the bloc’s struggle to come to grips with debt crises in several of the 17 member nations that use the euro. Even so, nearly all leading politicians and members of the Croatian Parliament came out in support of a 'yes' vote in the referendum.

"If Croatia is admitted to the European Union as scheduled on July 1, 2013, it would be obliged to adopt the euro as well, though not immediately — that would not occur until the nation of 4.5 million people could meet the economic criteria for joining. The Croatian prime minister, Zoran Milanovic, has said that that would not happen before 2015 or 2016.

"Because of its legacy of nationalist politics, Croatia was not included in the last two waves of union expansion, in 2004 and 2007. Of the states that, with Croatia, formerly made up Yugoslavia, only Slovenia has been admitted so far, in 2004."

Bloomberg Businessweek on January 24, 2012, adds:

"Two decades after the country won independence in the bloody breakup of Yugoslavia, the government expects EU entry to boost investment and economic growth and cement its break from communism. Enthusiasm for EU unity is waning among its eastern members, including Hungary and the Czech Republic, as the continent faces a return to a recession and politicians balk at efforts to merge fiscal policies.

“'Citizens have voted for a European Croatia,' Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic said on state television yesterday. 'This is also great news for Europe. It’s a message to Europe that its values are still supported and recognized.'

"Membership in the world’s largest trading bloc may provide the Adriatic nation with hundreds of millions of euros in regional development and infrastructure subsidies. Companies such as Germany’s Siemens AG and Deutsche Telekom AG and Sweden’s Ericsson AB expect to expand into the Balkans as western Europe’s growth stalls over the debt crisis...

“'The European Union gives us a ticket to the world in which we can be successful,' Davor Majetic, head of the Croatian Association of Entrepreneurs, said by phone. 'We want to work and have an opportunity to turn our ideas into profitable products that can reach that market of 500 million people.'”