24/07/2005 5:10:15 pm
Fantasic Croatia. Being on vacation with the best and most beautiful woman in the world is of course always great. Anywhere and any time. But add to that the hospitable people, crystal-clear water, historic villages, fresh fish for dinner and sun of Croatia, the mix could hardly get better.

In the second largest town, Split, and the islands of Hvar and Vis, the atmosphere is intriguing, genuine and they are prime examples of complex European history. The coast looks much like that of Greece, but with houses more like Italy. And there are traces of the Roman empire as well as the Greek city-states and of course in the more modern history, the World Wars and Yugoslavia.

Apart from a Volkswagen cab that broke down and an attack by a dog while I was joggning, everything was without incidents. That gave a lot of time for thoughts and observations. A small obervation, but telling, was that almost no place in the island of Vis served breakfast, despite many who wanted it. Finally, the reason was told by a café-owner: the state dictates exactly what you are allowed to serve and not. Serving a sandwich (but not a cake) with the coffee raises the taxes and bureaucracy enormously. So nobody even tries. And you have to buy bread at a bakery and go to a café. The state thus makes everyone less happy.

Despite that, however, you see the typical signs of economic growth everywhere. New cars, renovated buildings, good restaurants and fashionable clothes. To mention a few things. And Croatian growth is expected to be an all right 3 % this year and a high 4,5 % next year. What an enormous difference this progress must be compared to for the citizens only some thirteen years ago when there was war!

EU membership seems natural and it was very close recently, but there was a setback due to Croatian resistence to deliver a suspected war criminal to the International Criminal Court. It is good that the EU is firm on such core matters. But the basic development seems clear: Croatia is becoming a normal European country and an EU membership would consolidate many steps of progress.