Croatia celebrates the 24th anniversary of international recognition on January 15, 2016, remembering the historic day when Croatia started its path of international diplomatic recognition. On January 15, 1992, it was officially recognized by twelve countries of the European Economic Community and on the very same day, recognition came from Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Hungary, Malta, Poland and Switzerland.
Slovenia was the very first country to recognize Croatia’s independence along with Ukraine and Latvia but since they were not internationally recognized at the time, we will always remember Iceland as the first sovereign state to officially recognize our country on December 19, 1991 while Germany followed just a few hours later (however, their decision came into power on January 15 since they were a EEC country). Three more countries recognized our independence before the EEC scheduled date: the Holy See, Estonia, and San Marino and by the end of January, seven more states followed: Finland, Romania, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia and the United Nations recognition came in May 1992.
