Integrating new countries into the European Research Area. Croatian reflections on joining the European Union.

The post-Cold War era is witnessing more European nations joining the European Union (EU). This influx of new members necessitates, inter alia, a re-examination of the policies that guide their integration into the common European Research Area (ERA). The basic premise of these policies is—or should be—axiomatic for Europe’s further development: the continent cannot afford scientific illiteracy or underdevelopment in any region. The reasons are self-evident: at a minimum, scientific research is needed to nurture scientific literacy as the basis for technological progress and to increase general literacy; at most, it is a force that enriches, humanizes and ennobles. Consequently, claims that scientific research is too expensive for countries with emerging economies, or that these countries are unlikely to make major contributions to the scientific and technological progress of Europe, are no longer relevant. The pertinent question, then, is how to maximize its creative potential across the entire ERA. An important obstacle to this process is the historic legacy that still affects Eastern European countries. In the twentieth century, the whole continent suffered from the self-inflicted wounds of two world wars, and the effects of the Nazi and Communist ideologies. After the Second World War, most Western European countries experienced rapid democratic, economic and scientific growth, but Eastern Europe struggled under Communist totalitarianism. One legacy of Communism is its economic failure, and the consequent trailing behind the West of scientific infrastructure and educational systems. The damage is larger still, as it reaches the core of society, particularly through the loss of the middle class and elites. Croatia, for example, lost large segments of its middle class—Jews, Croats and others—during the Second World War and the Communist purges that took place immediately thereafter. Thus, in less than a decade, the social fabric of Croatia was profoundly changed (Bejaković et al, 1990; Gelo, 1987; Gelo et al, 2005).