Tuesday, October 17, 2006

The slow train to Zagreb

As explained at A Fistful of Euros recently, the most immediate loser from the European Union's disillusionment with enlargement is Croatia -- held up while there was still some goodwill by unresolved issues from the Balkan wars, but now stuck at the end of a very open-ended agenda which includes getting a new EU Constitution ratified. But either someone didn't tell George Bush this, or the Croatian PM Sanader made a very strong case in his meeting with him today --

[Bush] We talked about foreign policy issues, issues of peace. I thank the people of Croatia for their support in Afghanistan of a young democracy. I also believe it's in the world's interest that Croatia join NATO, as well as the European Union. To that end, when I go to Riga, I will make the case that Croatia should be admitted. It seems like a reasonable date would be 2008.

Since the Republicans have been playing nicely with Serbia recently too, this suggests that speedy admission for Serbia will also be on the US agenda in dialogue with the EU.

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