From ethnic slaughter to stability in two decades: Croatia joins EU

[alfred russel]

Also, for a history oriented group like this forum, Macedonia is a good for a laugh.

[Zanza]

Just starting EU accession negotiations doesn't mean you are eventually admitted. Just ask the Turks. If Serbia turns out a stable rule-of-law democracy, they are welcome to join.

[The Larch]

Welcome Croats! Hope you don't mind having even more Germans in your coasts and camping sites in the summer.

Btw, if any country joins the EU in the next few years it'll be Iceland.

[HVC]

knowing the ex-Yugo's a I know I wouldn't let any of them in. Have they learned nothing from Greece?

[Josquius]

I don't really think Croatia is bottom of the barrel. They really should have been admitted before Romania and Bulgaria but for their border issues.

Welcome Croats! Hope you don't mind having even more Germans in your coasts and camping sites in the summer.

Btw, if any country joins the EU in the next few years it'll be Iceland.

Didn't they just drop out from the negotiations?

[Iormlund]

I thought there were no provisions for ejecting a member?  Is that just the euro?

You can't kick it but you can effectively shut it off.

[Razgovory]

I thought there were no provisions for ejecting a member?  Is that just the euro?

You can't kick it but you can effectively shut it off.

Well only if the country they want to shut out is a little country. Trying to shut out Germany or France won't really work.   You know, this was something I brought up way back before the Eurocrisis.  What if one of the big countries abuses one of the small ones.  I used the example of German screwing over Hungary.  I was told this wouldn't happen and silly to think about such things.

[Iormlund]

A single country alone cannot dictate sanctions. It needs a lot of support precisely because the smaller members didn't want that to happen.

[The Larch]

Btw, if any country joins the EU in the next few years it'll be Iceland.

Didn't they just drop out from the negotiations?

The negotiations are on hold since the last elections because the new government wants to hold a referendum on it.

[dps]

I don't know. I think that would have caused more damage for Serbia (and Kosovo), but perhaps could have moderated Srpska. Dayton stopped the war but I think it was always based on the idea that there'd be progress and there has been in the region, just not in Bosnia.

Fair point on the curve but Tadic was a genuinely very impressive leader who I think has done a lot to move Serbia on. His successor's a lot less impressive, but the impression I get is that Serbia wants to be a European country now and the momentum's in the right direction. It's starting to look more like a normal EU accession case and less like an absolute disaster. I believe Kosovo's also doing very well.

Shame about Bosnia though

In 1900 Central and Eastern Europe was quite multinational in a lot of places, and combined with nationalism that made it unstable. There was a lot of ethnic cleansing that went on, and now there are relatively homogenous countries that make any irredentist nationalism silly.

That isn't an endorsement of ethnic cleansing, but the Yugoslav Wars already basically ethnically cleansed the areas. Croatia and Kosovo have lost a lot of their Serbs (except in the north of Kosovo where there are issues), but Bosnia has been left internally divided (with Serbs in Srpska). The Bosnian case seems much more unstable.

Well, if ethnic cleansing involves forced relocation, such as what happened between Greece and Turkey after their post-WWI tilt, I think a case can be made that it has some merit.  If it just means mass killings, then obviously not.

[alfred russel]

Well, if ethnic cleansing involves forced relocation, such as what happened between Greece and Turkey after their post-WWI tilt, I think a case can be made that it has some merit.  If it just means mass killings, then obviously not.

I'm not saying there ever should have been forced relocation. However, by the time of the end of the Yugoslav Wars the relocations had already happened.

[Siege]

I only read "ethnic slaughter".