Yearbook 2009
Croatia. According to countryaah, the hopes of completing the membership negotiations with the EU during the year faded when neighboring Slovenia blocked the negotiations. The reason was disagreement over the border crossing between the countries of the Piran Bay in the Adriatic. Eventually, both countries were reportedly approaching a settlement, and in November they agreed to leave international mediators to settle the border dispute. By then, negotiations with the EU had already resumed. Opportunities were considered to be completed in the first half of 2010. The EU had noted that Croatia had made sufficient progress in judicial reform and the restructuring of the shipbuilding industry.
| Land area | 56,594 km² |
| Total population | 4,227,746 |
| Population density (per km²） | 74.7 |
| Capital | Zagreb (Agram) |
| Official language | Croatian |
| Income per capita | $ 24,700 |
| Currency | Croatian kuna |
| ISO 3166 code | MR |
| Internet TLD | .Mr |
| License plate | MR |
| Telephone code | +385 |
| Time zone UTC | UTC + 1, daylight saving time UTC + 2 |
| Geographic coordinates | 45 10 N, 15 30 O |
In May, MP Branimir Glavas was sentenced to ten years in prison for war crimes by a Zagreb court. Glavas was the first high-ranking politician in Croatia to be convicted of abusing Croatians during the war in the early 1990s. He was arrested for the first time in 2006 but was released following a hunger strike. In April 2007, he was arrested again and prosecuted, but released at the end of the year after being re-elected to Parliament as a member of a right-wing party he founded himself. Shortly before the convict came, Glavas fled to Bosnia, where he is also a citizen.
On July 1, Prime Minister Ivo Sanader surprisingly announced that he would resign with immediate effect and completely withdraw from politics. He had previously figured as a conceivable candidate in the upcoming presidential election. Deputy Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor took over as Prime Minister and thus became the country’s first female head of government. The government in general remained intact. Kosor was also elected new leader of the ruling right-wing party HDZ.
In the first round of the presidential election in late December, Social Democrat Ivo Josipović was supported by a third of voters, against 15 percent for second, independent candidate Milan Bandić. The second round was planned after the turn of the year.
November
New verdict against former Prime Minister
November 13
Former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader (2003–2009) has been sentenced to eight years in prison for a number of corruption offenses. According to the court, Sanader, who is already serving a prison sentence for similar crimes (see April 4, 2019), has embezzled several million euros from the state treasury through illegal donations and illegal procurements. Both Sanader and his party, the ruling HDZ, are sentenced to pay damages of around 2 million euros each.