In the 2000s, the academy has been criticized to the effect that membership and activities are based on academic
cronyism and political favor rather than on scientific and artistic merit. In 2006 matters came to a head with the academy's refusal to induct Dr.
Miroslav Radman, an accomplished
biologist, a member of the
French Academy of Sciences, and an advocate of a higher degree of
meritocracy and accountability in Croatian academia. His supporters within the academy and the media decried the decision as reinforcing a politically motivated, unproductive
status quo. Dr.
Ivo Banac, a
Yale University professor and then a deputy in the
Croatian parliament, addressed the chamber in a speech decrying a "dictatorship of mediocrity" in the academy, while
Globus columnist
Boris Dežulović satirized the institution as an "academy of stupidity and obedience". Dr.
Vladimir Paar and others defended the academy's decision, averring that it did take pains to include accomplished scientists but that, since Dr. Radman's work has mostly taken place outside Croatia, it was appropriate that he remain a corresponding rather than a full member of the academy.
Nenad Ban, a distinguished molecular biologist from
ETH Zurich and a member of the
German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina is only a corresponding member of HAZU.
Ivan Đikić, a molecular biologist working at the
Goethe University Frankfurt, and also a member of Leopoldina since 2010, has not been able to join HAZU even as a corresponding member, despite being the most cited Croatian scientist, with more citations than the academy's 18-member Department of Medical Sciences combined. From 2005 to 2007, the Department of Philological Sciences at the academy released several declarations on the linguistic situation in Croatia, which were criticised by
Snježana Kordić for being nationalistically motivated rather than linguistically based. Despite pressure from members of the Department of Philological Sciences, one journal refused to stop publishing criticism. In May 2022, the academy published a document outlining conditions for Bosnia and Herzegovina's entry into the
European Union, calling for a third Croat entity to be implemented in the country due to the rising challenges faced by Croats from "Serbian secessionist and Bosniak unitarist" policies. It also proposed conditions to be fulfilled by Serbia and Montenegro before they joined the EU. It has been criticized by analysts for its ethno-nationalist and political nature and has drawn comparisons to the controversial
SANU memorandum. ==Miscelaneous==