Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T20:07:46.903Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Back to the future, forward to the past: Croatian politics of memory in the European Parliament

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Ana Milošević Open the ORCID record for Ana Milošević [Opens in a new window]
Ana Milošević*
Affiliation:
University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
*
*Email: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

This paper discusses the way in which a post-conflict European Union (EU) member immediately after accession both shapes and adapts to EU memory politics as a part of its Europeanization process. I will analyze how the country responds to the top-down pressures of Europeanization in the domestic politics of memory by making proactive attempts at exporting its own politics of memory (discourses, policies, and practices) to the EU level. Drawing evidence from Croatian EU accession, I will consider how Croatian members of the European Parliament “upload” domestic memory politics to the EU level, particularly to the European Parliament. Based on the analysis of elite interviews, discourses, parliamentary duties, agenda-setting, and decision-making of Croatian MEPs from 2013 to 2016, I argue that the parliament serves both as a locus for confirmation of European identity through promotion of countries’ EU memory credentials and as a new forum for affirmation of national identity. The preservation of the “Homeland War” narrative (1991–1995) and of the “sacredness” of Vukovar as a European lieu de mémoire clearly influences the decision-making of Croatian MEPs, motivating inter-group support for policy building and remembrance practices that bridge domestic political differences.

Keywords

European memoryenlargementCroatiaMEPsVukovar
Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 45 , Issue 5 , September 2017 , pp. 893 - 909
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

References

Baker, Catherine. 2009. “War Memory and Musical Tradition: Commemorating Croatia's Homeland War through Popular Music and Rap in Eastern Slavonia.” Journal of Contemporary European Studies 17 (1): 35–45.Google Scholar
Banjeglav, Tamara. 2012. “Conflicting Memories, Competing Narratives and Contested Histories in Croatia's Post-war Commemorative Practices.” Politička misao 49 (5): 7–31.Google Scholar
Börzel, Tanja A. 2002. “Pace-Setting, Foot-Dragging and Fence-Sitting: Member State Responses to Europeanization.” Journal of Common Market Studies 40 (2): 193–214.Google Scholar
Börzel, Tanja A. 2011. “When Europe Hits … Beyond its Borders: Europeanization and the Near Abroad.” Comparative European Politics 9 (4–5): 394–413.Google Scholar
Clark, Janine Natalya. 2013. “Reconciliation through Remembrance? War Memorials and the Victims of Vukovar.” The International Journal of Transitional Justice 7 (1): 116–135.Google Scholar
De Flers, Nicole Alecu, and Müller, Patrick. 2009. “Applying the Concept of Europeanization to the Study of Foreign Policy: Dimensions and Mechanisms.” Working Paper 5, Vienna: Institute for European Integration Research.Google Scholar
Dnevnik.hr. 2014. “Dan sjećanja na žrtvu Vukovara i Škabrnje obilježen u EP-u.” November 18.Google Scholar
Euractiv. 2015. “Croatian MEPs Test their ‘firepower’ Against Candidate Serbia.” March 12.Google Scholar
EP (European Commission). 2005. Eurobarometer EB63, Brussels, http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/eb/eb63/eb63_en.htm.Google Scholar
EP (European Parliament). 2013. Report of Proceedings, P7_CRE-PROV(2013)11–20.Google Scholar
EP (European Parliament). 2014a. 25th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall (debate), P8_CRE-REV(2014)11–12.Google Scholar
EP (European Parliament). 2014b. Serbia: The Case of Accused War Criminal Šešelj, RC-B8-0292/2014.Google Scholar
EP (European Parliament). 2015a. Report of Proceedings, P8_CRE-PROV(2015)01-12.Google Scholar
EP (European Parliament). 2015b. Plenary, Report of Proceedings, P8_CRE-PROV(2015)02–09.Google Scholar
Freyburg, Tina, and Richter, Solveig. 2010. “National Identity Matters: the Limited Impact of EU Political Conditionality in the Western Balkans.” Journal of European Public Policy 17 (2): 263–281.Google Scholar
Geddes, Andrew, and Taylor, Andrew. 2015. “Those Who Knock on Europe's Door Must Repent? Bilateral Border Disputes and EU Enlargement.” Political Studies 6 (4): 930–947.Google Scholar
HDZ. 2013. “Europski parlament odao počast žrtvama Vukovara.” November 19.Google Scholar
HRsvijet. 2014. “HDZ-ovi eurozastupnici reagirali na stavove Martina Schulza: Ignorirate Hrvatsku i pišete hvalospjeve o bivšoj Jugoslaviji.” March 19.Google Scholar
Jakovčić, Ivan. 2015. Interview, July 21.Google Scholar
Jelin, Elisabeth. 2003. State Repression and the Labors of Memory. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota.Google Scholar
Jović, Dejan. 2009. “Croatia after Tudjman. The ICTY and Issues of Transitional Justice.” In War Crimes, Conditionality and EU Integration in the Western Balkans, edited by Batt, Judy and Obradović-Wochnik, Jelena, 13–27. Paris: Institute for Security Studies.Google Scholar
Jović, Dejan. 2012. “The War That is Not Allowed to be Forgotten: Nationalist Discourse on the Homeland War (1991–1995).” Südosteuropa Mitteilungen 3: 52–69.Google Scholar
Krasnec, Tomislav. 2016. “Nije dobro da se SPC nacionalizmom miješa u europski put Srbije.” Večernji list, January 13.Google Scholar
Kristović, Ivica. 2013. “Gotovina hodao u koloni pod ruku sa Željkom Jurić.” Večernji list, November 18.Google Scholar
Littoz-Monnet, Annabelle. 2012. “The EU Politics of Commemoration. Can Europeans Remember Together?” West European Politics 35 (5): 1182–1202.Google Scholar
McAllister, David. 2015. Interview, June 17.Google Scholar
MEP EPP 2015 (Member of the European Parliament, European People's Party). 2015. Interview, June 15.Google Scholar
Mink, Georges, and Neumayer, Laura, eds. 2013. History, Memory and Politics in Central and Eastern Europe: Memory Games. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Müller, Jan Werner. 2002. Memory and Power in Post-war Europe: Studies in the Presence of the Past. Cambridge: University Press.Google Scholar
Narodne novine. 2000. “Deklaracija o suradnji s Međunarodnim kaznenim sudom u Den Haagu.” April 18.Google Scholar
Pavelić, Boris. 2013. “Zabranjena ćirilica u Vukovaru.” November 3.Google Scholar
Pavlaković, Vjeran. 2010. “Croatia, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and General Gotovina as a Political Symbol.” Europe-Asia Studies 62 (10): 1707–1740.Google Scholar
Prcela, John Ivan, and Živić, Dražen. 2001. Hrvatski Holokaust. Zagreb: Hrvatsko društvo političkih zatvorenika.Google Scholar
Radonić, Ljiljana. 2012. “Croatian Politics of the Past – Just One More Post-Communist Case Study?” Istorija 20. Veka (1): 203–215.Google Scholar
Radoš, Jozo. 2015. Interview, May 26.Google Scholar
Ristić, Marija. 2015. “Croatian MEPs Accuse Serbia of Unjust Prosecutions.” Balkan Transitional Justice, January 20.Google Scholar
Sabalić, Ines. 2015. Interview, July 1.Google Scholar
Schimmelfennig, Frank. 2008. “EU Political Accession Conditionality after the 2004 Enlargement: Consistency and Effectiveness.” Journal of European Public Policy 15 (6): 918–937.Google Scholar
Sierp, Aline, and Wüstenberg, Jenny. 2015. “Linking the Local and the Transnational: Rethinking Memory Politics in Europe.” Journal of Contemporary European Studies 23 (3): 321–329.Google Scholar
Škrlec, Davor. 2015. Interview, May 28.Google Scholar
Stier, Davor Ivo. 2015. Interview, June 30.Google Scholar
The Guardian. 2012. “War Crimes Convictions of Two Croatian Generals Overturned.” November 16.Google Scholar
Tomašić, Ruža. 2015. Interview, May 27.Google Scholar
Večernji list. 2014. “Nove provokacije: Šešelj četnicima čestitao dan oslobođenja srpskog Vukovara.” November 18. Accessed February 4, 2017. http://www.vecernji.hr/svijet/seselj-cetnicima-cestitao-dan-oslobodenja-srpskog-vukovara-974182.Google Scholar
Večernji list. 2015. “Dan sjećanja na žrtvu Vukovara i Škabrnje obilježen u EP-u.” November 18.Google Scholar
Vijesti.hr. 2014. “Ili se radi o licemjerstvu ili žele naštetiti Srbiji.” November 27.Google Scholar