Croatia has become the 28th member of the European Union, a major milestone which comes some 20 years after the country won independence in a bloody Yugoslavia civil war.

It is the bloc’s first addition since Bulgaria and Romania joined in 2007.

The republic joins the EU two decades after declaring independence from federal Yugoslavia, a step that triggered four years of war in which some 20,000 people died.

Though enthusiasm for the country’s achievement has been dampened by the EU’s financial turmoil, it is a historic turning point for the Balkan nation of 4.2 million people.

Among those who gathered in the capital Zagreb to celebrate were the European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy.

President Ivo Josipovic told Croatia’s Nova TV that journalists from EU countries had repeatedly asked him why the nation wanted to join the bloc.

“My counter question was: ‘You come from the EU. Is your country preparing to leave the bloc?’ They would invariably reply: ‘Of course not.’ Well, there you go, that’s why we are joining, because we also believe the EU has a future,” he said.

But few Croatians were in the mood to party as they face a fifth year of recession and record unemployment of 21%.

Most of the 3,700 fishermen who ply their trade in Croatia’s eastern Adriatic fear that the country’s accession to the bloc and strict laws and regulations that come with it will damage their trade.

“I’m afraid we’re in for a lot of unpleasant surprises,” said Danilo Latin, whose family have been fishermen for four generations.

“We’ll lose the subsidies, we’ll have to change our nets, fish further from the shore, there will be more competition and new restrictions, so we’re looking at harder times,” he said.

But for some Croatians the merits of accession were undeniable, despite the lukewarm mood.

“I know many people in Croatia are very sceptical but I think EU entry is the best thing that could have happened and it’s an injustice we should have waited since 1990,” said Zeljko Kastelan, a businessman whose hotels employ 70 people.

“What we need to do now is work hard to make up for the lost time.”

Speaking on Sky’s Murnaghan programme on Sunday, the Croatian prime minister, Zoran Milanovic, said the scepticism was to be expected.

“Croatian citizens always retain a pinch of scepticism, so in relation to the EU you would hardly ever get in Croatia 100% support for any grand idea,” he said.

“It’s a rational and reasonable amount of scepticism that’s always present in Croatian society.”

Croatia has gone through seven years of tortuous and often unpopular EU-guided reform.

It has handed over more than a dozen Croatian and Bosnian Croat military and political leaders charged with war crimes to the United Nations tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague.

It has sold shipyards, steeped in history and tradition but deep in debt, and launched a fight against corruption that saw former prime minister Ivo Sanader jailed.

Some EU members remain concerned at the level organised crime.

The country, which has a coastline that attracts 10 million tourists each year, is one of seven that emerged from the ashes of Yugoslavia during a decade of war in the 1990s.

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