On the Eve of the First Decade of EU Membership: Perceptions of EU's Policy Influence in Croatia

Ovaj rad sagledava koliki je utjecaj Europske unije na četiri odabrane hrvatske javne politike u prvih 10 godina članstva. Analiziraju se makroekonomska politika, poljoprivredna politika, politika zapošljavanja i obrazovna politika. U analizi malog broja raznolikih slučajeva ispituje se i prikazuje efekt europeizacije u odabranim politikama. Umjesto objektivne uzročno-posljedične i procesne analize, europeizacija se u ovome radu proučava kroz prizmu percepcije građana i stručnjaka o utjecaju EU-a na odabrane politike. Za potrebe istraživanja provedeno je anketno istraživanje na prigodnom uzorku građana i ekspertna anketa sa stručnjacima u analiziranim područjima javnih politika. Istraživanje pokušava dati odgovor na pitanje kakva je percepcija utjecaja EU na odabrane politike te postoji li razlika u percepciji između građana i stručnjaka. Uz to, analizira se u kojoj su mjeri europeizirane odabrane politike prema mišljenjima stručnjaka. Rezultati upućuju na to da postoji efekt europeizacije u promatranim politikama, a veći stupanj utjecaja pretpostavlja se u politikama koje su u većoj nadležnosti EU-a što je u skladu s teorijskim pretpostavkama.This paper examines the impact of the European Union on four selected Croatian public policies in the first 10 years of membership. Macroeconomic policy, agricultural policy, employment policy and educational policy are analyzed. In the analysis of a small number of diverse cases, the effect of Europeanization in selected policies is examined and presented. Instead of an objective cause-and-effect and process analysis, Europeanization is studied in this paper through the prism of the perception of citizens and experts about the influence of the EU on selected policies. For the purposes of the research, a survey was conducted on a convenient sample of citizens and an expert survey with experts in the analyzed areas of public policies. The research tries to answer the question of what the perception of the influence of the EU on selected policies is and whether there is a difference in perception between citizens and experts. In addition, it is analyzed to what extent selected policies are Europeanized according to experts' opinions. The results indicate that there is an effect of Europeanization in the observed policies, and a greater degree of influence is assumed in policies that are under the greater competence of the EU, which is in line with theoretical assumptions