Serbia in Europe. This is the title of a popular book with interview with Zoran Djindjić. Djindjić, who studied in Germany, was prime minister still 2003 when he was murdered. But the question is of course not if Serbia is geographically in Europe, but if it should become member of the European Union.

The normal citizen of the EU is hardly aware of this question, most focus is given if Turkey should be part of the EU. Which somehow touches Serbia, because 150 years ago the border to Turkey crossed today's Serbia. In Serbia there are two opinions: one, and this group is represented by the current government, wants Serbia in the EU till 2012. And the other side does not want Serbia in the EU.

More interesting is the question if the EU is any good, and if it should extend to the Balkans. In the West, people are afraid of large groups of cheap labor threatening well paid jobs. They count the number of jobs that go to the East. They think on all that money that will be transferred there. On crime without borders. On our values and beliefs, threatened by a corrupt country without democratic culture.

Here people think the opposite. On multinational countries flooding the market with their goods and killing Serbian employment. They count the foreign exchange deficit as sign of foreign employment taking their share of Serbia's economy. They are afraid of foreign regulations that will override local customs. Foreign money that will buy valuable land, art and other that locals cannot afford any more. And the Serbian values, that will be replaced by a materialistic Western way of live without any solidarity.

So far we have gone in Europe. We are afraid of the ideas which are the base of our current Europe. We have May 8th as a holiday to remember the victory in World War 2, but we have no holiday on May 9, the day of Europe, as a symbol of a new beginning.

What can be said by an expatriate, is that we miss the EU here. If you live here, you still know what a customs officer is. How many different currencies there are and what inflation means for your daily life. How difficult it is to get a visa for Paris, even if you are the manager of a French company. Not to talk about the political problems between the countries, which is the reason for the over 10 000 solders of the EU which are in the region. 

Pragmatic people would also mention the many laws and regulations that are brought into reality not without a lot of effort, but always with the goal of "Europe": company law, labor law, non discrimination, legal procedures, tax regulations ...

Will there be a Serbia in Europe? A Croatia, Bosnia, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia? Or is the value of the Balkans less than the value of the bones of one single Prussian soldier? Geography has given an answer, politics still has to. But not solving this question in a peaceful way has cost the lives of thousands in the past. Let us hope for a peaceful way.

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Upd. on 05. dec 2005