Mired in recession, ex-Yugoslav Croatia joins troubled EU

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - Croatia becomes the 28th member of the European Union at midnight on Sunday, a milestone capping the Adriatic republic's recovery from war but tinged with anxiety over its economy and the state of the bloc it joins.

EU flags fluttered from a stage in Zagreb's central square ahead of the evening's festivities, but there have been few signs of the gushing welcome that marked past expansions to ex-communist Eastern Europe.

Croatia joins the bloc just over two decades after declaring independence from federal Yugoslavia, the trigger for four years of war in which some 20,000 people died.

Facing a fifth year of recession and record unemployment of 21 percent, few Croatians are in the mood to party.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/30/us-croatia-eu-idUSBRE95T04P20130630

[pampango]

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

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.

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.

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

Thanks for posting this, dippydoodle.

[Igel]

2. Ethnic cleansing has its rewards.

From 1991 to 2001 the Croat majority went from 8nder 80% to nearly 90% of the population. Most ethnic groups held their own, but the conflict in the mid '90s wasn't Croat-Macednonian or Croat-Albanian.

Look at a nice ethnic map these days and you see very nice borders, Croat on one side and Muslim-Bosnjak on the other. Removing Bosnjaci from Croatia helped decrease their percentage of the population--whether by death or migration. Those Hrvati that fled Bosna helped boost the absolute number of Hrvati. It helped increase social cohesion, one of the things needed for social and economic stability. (Lots of Americans should note that. Social distrust makes widespread economic prosperity harder to achieve.)

As for the length of time for stability, most of Croatia wasn't affected. The US was in a huge war about 70 years ago but nobody is amazed that the US was stable in 1947.