The financial crisis is a particular event in which asset prices are plummeting, businesses and consumers are unable to pay their debts, and financial institutions have a lack of liquidity. The 2008 financial crisis is considered one of the most devastating crises throughout human history. Rapid credit growth, low risk premiums, high liquidity, rising property prices and exorbitant real estate prices are considered responsible for the crisis, ie the crisis is caused by the bursting of "bubbles" in the US real estate market. The financial crisis initially appeared as a crisis in the US real estate market, but very quickly it develops into a financial crisis, then an economic crisis and eventually into a social and political crisis on a global scale. The financial crisis has had devastating negative impacts around the world. Declining GDP, rising unemployment rates, falling stock prices, declining businesses, etc. are just a few of the phenomena affected by the financial crisis. The final paper analyzes the impact of the crisis on EU countries, ie on GDP levels, GDP growth, public debt growth, rising unemployment rates, rising non-performing loans, interest and social expenditures, and how the European Union and the IMF sought to respond to the negative effects of the crisis, ie seek to reduce them. The paper also analyzed the impact of the crisis on the Republic of Croatia, ie on GDP, unemployment rate, industrial production, falling stock prices and the impact on the share of imports and exports of goods and services in GDP.