Croatian accesion to European Union has been one of the most important goals of Croatian foreign policy since independence. Membership in EU modifies Croatian way of operation as it was in the past, which also affects to the lives of citizens due to factors such as border opening, unique market etc. Finally, it influence on citizens to create certai attitude towards EU based on older and recent experiences related with EU, and this attitude is certainly influenced by variables such as age, education, level of information about EU etc. The topic of this PhD thesis in the theoretical part deals with the determination and genesis of EU as also with perception of EU image and explaining the importance of image in international relations. On the other hand, in the part related with survey, it is presented the image of EU in Croatia during the first year of membership, respectively how EU is perceived by Croatian citizens and how Croatian most read newspapers approached to report about EU. The aim of this PhD is to ascertain how strongly Croatian citizens are satisfied with the accession to the EU and to determine how strongly they inform about EU. Also, aim is to determine attitudes of citizens about issues related to public discourse topics such as issues of national identity, prospects in the fututre, standards of living etc., as also to determine opinion of citizens in which areas Croatia could profit maximally with accession to the EU. Also, the aim is to determine differences between newspapers in reporting about EU. In order to achieve these aims, there are used survey methods such as questionnaire and content analysis during four-mounthy cycles. Therefore, membership in the European Union show us that at the same time there is present a fear, but also a hope for Croatia's future in ''European family'', and how it can't remain indifferent to the Union.