Croatia joins the North Atlantic Alliance

After becoming a member of the Partnership for Peace in 2000, the first step towards membership of NATO, then joining the Action Plan for Peace in 2002, Croatia concluded the first round of negotiations in April 2008. At the end of the ratification process of the Accession Protocol signed in July 2008 in Brussels, Croatia formally became a NATO member, the most powerful military alliance ever. In the photo on the left, Croatian President Stjepan Mesić and his US counterpart Barack Obama. In the background, Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader.

2009

6 July

Photo: HINA

First woman at the head of the Government

After the surprise resignation of Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, Jadranka Kosor, also member of HDZ (centre-right), was appointed Prime Minister. This was the first time since independence for a woman to take the reins of Government, which she would lead until the conclusion of the EU accession negotiations in 2011. Elected Member of Parliament in 1995, she also held the office of Vice-President of Parliament, then of Vice-President of the Government. A candidate at the presidential election of 2005, she lost in the second round to Stjepan Mesić.