Croatia to join EU in 2013

Last week, the EU announced that membership talks with Croatia had concluded and that it was in a position to join on 1st July, 2013. It's one of the more prosperous Balkan states, and its tourism industry has great potential, so in that regard there can be no complaints. The relevance to this section, however, which our Croatian expert, Spudulika, will be aware of, is its government. It's the same party that was in power during the Bosnian war, when the then-president Tudjman wanted to carve up the country with Milosevic and often used symbols associated with the Ustase (WW2 Croatian fascists). Admittedly, they must have reformed considerably since to get the thumbs-up from Brussels, but Spudulika will better know how much things have changed in the country since.

Well its not like Romania or Bulgaria had to reform considerably to get the backing of Brussels.