At midnight on July 1, at all the border points of Croatia, besides the national flag and emblem, the flag of the European Union has been raised. It took ten years before the country became an official 28th member of the EU. Croatia is not planning to join the Schengen area or introduce the euro right now. Zagreb was greeting honored guests with large-scale open air celebrations. All the attendees were welcomed by Croatia's President Ivo Josipovic and European Commission Chairman Jose Manuel Barroso. Angela Merkel was supposed to deliver a welcome speech, however a hectic schedule did not let Germany's chancellor to attend the event. For the past ten years the world's economic situation has changed. So amid the crisis consequences and internal imbalance in the EU, the Croatians cannot reckon on the financial help. Although, according to the government, the banking system did not suffer from the crisis, the reality is that the number of the unemployed is about 500 million, the government debt has depreciated and got a disappointing rating. Moreover, Croatia has a high rate of corruption and crime. From this moment, the country will try to solve all these problems as the EU member. The European Commission hopes that the rest of the ex-Yugoslavian countries will follow the example of Croatia and Slovenia, because this step may bring about stabilization and fence-mending in the region.