Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Europe at the crossroads of the Mediterranean, Central Europe and the Balkans. Its capital is Zagreb. Croatia shares land borders with Slovenia and Hungary to the north, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro to the south, as well as a sea border with Italy to the west. It is a candidate for membership in the European Union and NATO.
At the time of first modern Croatia's president Franjo Tuđman's death in December 1999, the country was in a parlous state. The HDZ lost power after the presidential and parliamentary elections at the beginning of 2000, which ushered in a new era of politicians who pledged commitment to political and economic reforms and Croatia's integration into the European mainstream. The left-centre coalition government was led by the SDP until November 2003, when the reformed HDZ formed minority government. President Stjepan Mesić, coming from centrist/liberal party HNS, was elected two times, in 2000 and 2005. The constitution has been changed to shift power away from the president to the parliament. Croatia has joined the World Trade Organization and opened up the economy, making it grow and inflation was kept under control. It joined NATO's Partnership for Peace program and became an official candidate for membership in that alliance. By early 2003 it had made sufficient progress to apply for European Union membership, becoming the second EU candidate country from former Yugoslavia, after Slovenia. Accession negotiations were opened on October 3, 2005, and the country is expected to become an EU member state in 2009 or 2010.
