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

[jimmy olsen]

I don't know if I'd want to join a listing ship.

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/28/19187211-from-ethnic-slaughter-to-stability-in-two-decades-former-war-zone-croatia-joins-eu?lite

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

By Alastair Jamieson, Staff writer, NBC News

Only 18 years after a peace deal ended violence that left the former Yugoslavia bloodsoaked and gave birth to the term "ethnic cleansing," Croatia is to join the European Union at midnight on Sunday.

It is a major milestone for Balkan countries trying to close the door on decades of Communist rule and the horrors of civil wars that tore apart communities along ethnic and religious lines.

But while European leaders trumpet the latest expansion of the economic bloc, celebrations may be muted in austerity-weary Croatia.

With its thousands of miles of glistening Adriatic coastline, modern highways and sidewalk cafes, Croatia looks as prosperous as its new cousins in western Europe.

That masks an economy crippled by soaring national debt, an unemployment rate of 18.1 percent and an economy heavily dependent upon tourism.

"I fear that we will become another Greece, another Cyprus," said Vesna Mitrovic, who runs a vacation apartment near Dubrovnik – the historic city that became trapped in a six-month siege in 1991 and is now home to the Museum of Croatia's War of Independence.

"I signed the petition against EU membership," she said. "I think we will become a small fish in a big pond."

However Igor Nicolic, 84, of Sibenik, a town north of Split, said he was pleased to see his country join the EU.

said. "We always thought of ourselves as part of central Europe, so it is really good that we can now join the union. I think it will help with the corruption here and in the long run it will benefit all of us economically."

He appears to be in the minority. In a poll this month by Ipsos Puls, only 7 percent of Croatians said they would be watching a fireworks display marking Monday's occasion, Reuters reported. Forty-two percent said such a ceremony was unnecessary.

Croatia is not the first country to join the EU from behind the "Iron Curtain," the Cold War divide that separated the West from the Communist countries of the Soviet Bloc. Poland and Hungary, for example, joined in 2004.

Nor is Croatia the first part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to join: Slovenia, whose 1991 struggle for independence lasted a few weeks and claimed only 70 lives, was admitted in 2004.

However, Croatia is the first EU member among the protagonists in the post-1991 Balkan civil wars that also included Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo and Montenegro. By the time fighting ended in Kosovo in 1999, 140,000 lives were lost and more than a million people were displaced.

Serbia could join the EU next year, it was announced Tuesday, with Montenegro next in line - once monitoring teams approve efforts to eradicate corruption and weak public governance. Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo have yet to be formally adopted as candidates.

As well as passing economic tests to join the EU, these western Balkan countries were required to comply with efforts by the International Criminal Court in The Hague to bring war criminals on all sides to justice.

Croatia's first post-independence ruler, autocratic nationalist President Franjo Tudjman, was facing investigation over his possible role in war crimes when he died in 1999. In 2005, Croatia took a significant step, handing over suspected war criminal Ante Gotovina – although he was cleared at the The Hague seven years later.

ess."

Now a fellow at the Brookings public policy organization, Kauzlarich said that the country had resolved a lot of issues in order to join.

"I think if there is ... a negative element out there it is that Croatia still has a significant corruption problem and they're not going to be able to drop that because they've achieved this very important objective," he added.

Croatia's size means its accession will make more of a difference at home than across the rest of the EU. It is slightly smaller than West Virginia, and its 4.4 million citizens will represent less than one percent of the EU total.

Membership means it will qualify for Europe's generous regional assistance programs – equivalent to federal aid in the United States – in which public money is spent on infrastructure projects that reduce the inequalities compared to wealthier members.

In March, the European Investment Bank approved a $150 million loan for the expansion of the Zagreb Airport, a key link with the rest of Europe. Cultural funds will also help protect Croatia's heritage in places like Dubrovnik.

Not all EU citizens are happy. Germany's Bild magazine labelled Croatia "the new graveyard for our taxpayers' money," a reference to the Berlin-led economic bailouts necessary to prevent the total collapse of other southern European nations including Greece, Spain and Portugal.

Instead of riding high on Monday's accession, Croatia's Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic was forced to address those concerns, saying his country "is not a rose garden but it is not a Greece, either."

"My message to German taxpayers: We will cost you nothing," Milanovic said.

However, there are fears of a brain drain because EU membership also means fewer barriers to cross-border migration. A Facebook group, "Young people, let's leave Croatia" has attracted almost 60,000 likes.

"I'm happy we'll be able to seek jobs abroad and make more money," Zagreb computer science student Marko Jakic told Reuters. "But I'm also sad we can't do that in Croatia because our economy is bad and there are no jobs, even for us."

NBC News' Henry Austin and Reuters contributed to this report.

[Zanza]

Serbia could join the EU next year

Eh? That'll take at least another five years or so. They just started the negotiations for accession.

[CountDeMoney]

I don't know if I'd want to join a listing ship.

Profound.

[Neil]

They think that joining the EU will reduce corruption?  Things must be pretty bad in Croatia right now.

[Josquius]

I don't know if I'd want to join a listing ship.

How is the weather back in 2010?

[The Brain]

Croatia? My God they're really scraping the bottom of the barrel now.

[Admiral Yi]

Any country that joins right now should get a discount on membership.

[alfred russel]

Serbia could join the EU next year

Eh? That'll take at least another five years or so. They just started the negotiations for accession.

I was thinking about starting a thread on this.

Basic eligibility seems to have devolved to just being European (I know there are lots of other standards to meet). Which is fine, but it is odd to tie EU admission--which is supposedly going to be somewhat permanent and meaningful--to the apprehension of a couple of war crimes suspects. In the long run the prosecution of Ratko Mladic isn't going to be as important as EU membership. The bigger issue seems to be whether a country that has a sizable segment of the population that admires Mladic and Karadzic belongs in the EU. Whether they get apprehended if Europe gives them a big enough carrot doesn't seem to matter.

[Sheilbh]

Serbia's moved on a lot, especially under Tadic's presidency, though they're backsliding a bit now. When Mladic and Karadzic were apprehended there was barely any public outcry in Serbia.

They're a world away from, say, Srpska where there are enormous unresolved issues, lots of open admiration of Mladic and were Dodik goes to testify for the defence at the Hague on a pretty regular basis.

Any country that joins right now should get a discount on membership.

The EU isn't the Eurozone.

[alfred russel]

Serbia's moved on a lot, especially under Tadic's presidency, though they're backsliding a bit now. When Mladic and Karadzic were apprehended there was barely any public outcry in Serbia.

They're a world away from, say, Srpska where there are enormous unresolved issues, lots of open admiration of Mladic and were Dodik goes to testify for the defence at the Hague on a pretty regular basis.

Less than 15 years ago we were bombing the hell out of them (possibly to be followed up with ground troops) to stop a genocide. Grading them based on improvement is a fairly easy curve. 

I know this isn't politically correct, but maybe everyone would have been better off to let Srpska join Serbia, possibly with a small portion of Kosovo.

[Sheilbh]

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

[Admiral Yi]

I think another way to formulate Fredo's point is, what are the chances of Serbia regressing to its true Slavic nationalist thug nature once it has won admission?  The EU has plenty of carrot to impel good behavior to countries seeking entrance, no stick to compel good behavior once their in.

[Sheilbh]

Well the EU's always been about that. It started as an ingenious economic agreement among former combatants mostly about bits of the economy that are useful in war, in large part to rein in the Germans.

The EU can kick member states out and they can take other actions like they did against Austria over Haider. If the Serbs started agitating for Greater Serbia again I think that would be inevitable. I agree it's probably not enough as Hungary's recent actions show.

But if Serbia's moving in the right direction and taking the right steps they should be allowed in on the same terms as everyone else and there's no indication that they'd go the Hungarian route. As I say the impression I have is that Serbia wants to be a European country, like any other, and if they want rehabilitation we should welcome it.

[Admiral Yi]

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

[alfred russel]

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.