European Commission – Croatia, the War, and the Future

Croatia Bamboozled As EU Says Put On The Brakes To Refugee Influx

October 28, 2015 by inavukic 37 Comments

European Commission mini-summit
on refugee crisis
Sunday 25 October 2015

Following on to my last post the EC crisis mini-summit held in Brussels Sunday 25 October 2015 appears as yet another proof that EU leaders are still out with the Fairies when it comes to solving this crisis. Given that Germany’s Angela Merkel was very very loud in her invitations for all to come to Germany, and other Western European countries such as Sweden spread out their Welcome mats, it’s only natural that courage and the concept of entitlement are now instilled in all who are coming to Europe regardless of whether they are genuine refugees or illegal economic migrants. How can those countries who wield power in EU now ask the countries where these wretched people pass to “put the brakes on?” It is utterly irresponsible for in a mindset such as the one of welcome created, no “brake” is possible without some force. Such a situation of “needing to put the brakes on and being asked to do so for people who obviously need help” only leads in more instances than not, it seems, to humiliation, fear and going hungry as there is little food to go around.

October 2015
Refugees and migrants
making their way across Croatia
to Slovenia

European Commission from its Sunday 25 October 2015 mini-summit wants: humane conditions for the refugees, for countries affected by the massive refugee transit (such as Croatia, Slovenia…) it wants better communication among the countries and, to top the “fairy gilding” on its Magic Wand it wants an end to the “disorderly” influx of refugees and illegal economic migrants.
The leaders reportedly agreed to implement a 17 point operational measures as of Monday 26 October 2015 (Click here to see PDF version of statement on 17 points ). I refer to the Fairies here because it seems to me that those 17 points are more like a declaration of intent than an Action Plan to which all relevant parties are subscribed and for which conducive conditions exist.

At the Croatian border with Serbia Photo: Branko Filipovic/Reuters

At the Republic of Croatia border with Serbia
Photo: Branko Filipovic/Reuters

Talking of some concrete, hard figures, the 17 point plan does include 400 police officers to help out in Slovenia (where Schengen border is), the EU border security agency Frontex is to provide assistance in Greece (where Schengen border is) and on the Serbia-Croatia border (where EU border is). The European Union also pledged to help set up 100,000 places in reception centres along the route through the Balkans (50,000 in Greece and 50,000 – it does not specify. Within Croatia there are real fears of “hot-spots”/reception centres/camps being set up that would throw the country into disarray and anger at being duped or bamboozled into carrying the impossible load of dealing with refugees and illegal migrants without proper or adequate condition by its current government and the EU.
Hundreds of thousands of refugees have already passed through Croatia since mid-September – the number now revolving around 275,000 and the flow-through to the countries of desired destination (Germany, Sweden, UK…) is fast becoming clogged up with saturation of numbers the Western European countries can receive.

Croatia – Tovarnik
Refugees pushing to get
on train to Slovenia
October 2015
Photo: AP

Whether Germany or any other Western Europe country has reached saturation point, has reached or is about to reach the limit of how many refugees or migrants they can receive is not important or critical in this at all and “directives” to slow the influx are quite misguided and serve mainly the purpose of stalling a humanitarian calamity there that does not relate only to refugees/migrants but also to the domestic population whose opportunities in “sharing the livelihood cake” become increasingly depleted. With such large numbers of people on the move it’s not likely most will sit still in reception centres for years – they are likely to run and risk getting caught; most are at the stage where getting caught may appear a better prospect to many than staying still…EU (or indeed EU member countries affected) must prepare to deal with this and whether some force will need to be employed when/if saturation with refugees and illegal migrants starts threatening the livelihood of their own citizens due to lack of resources.

Refugees in Croatia
Stampede is on to move on

Demands to shut down the borders are on the rise. Bulgaria’s prime minister is toying with the idea – “If Germany, Austria, and other countries close their borders, we will not let our nations become a buffer zone; we will have the readiness to close ours in the same manner,” said Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov on Saturday 24 October, the Slovenian government says fences are an option and Croatia’s president would like to send the army to guard the border with Serbia. Hungary’s fence was deemed un-European in September 2015, but now, the idea of fences is becoming mainstream. The fear of being overrun by refugees and illegal migrants from the Middle East has won government for the Polish conservative and Europsceptic Law and Justice Party two days ago.
“Croatia can be satisfied with the results of the talks in Brussels, which were attended by Western Balkan countries on the refugee route“, Croatian interior minister Ranko Ostojic said Monday 26 October. He added that Frontex observers will supervise situation at the railway station in Sid (Serbia), where the refugees will board the trains and then be transported to a temporary winter camp in Slavonski Brod in Croatia.

Building at Slavonski Brod
Croatia to house refugees

Slavonski Brod centre can only house 5,000 and indications are that Croatia will be placed in a position – as Western European countries tighten the passageway for refugees and illegal migrants – to house more in accordance with the EC summit decisions from Sunday 25 October to set up 50,000 outside Greece in reception centres. So, the current Croatian government is actually setting-up a migrant “hot-spot” through “back doors” and it’s telling the citizens it does not want and it will not permit Croatia to become one! The concept of “hot spot” in the context of the refugee/migrant crisis has grown to denote a place where largely unwanted as well as unwilling refugees and illegal migrants remain “by force” for a time and the way things are panning out such places are bound to become cesspits of social unrest and despair.

Site planned for refugee camp in Slavonski Brod Croatia
near the building that’s being prepared

It’s actually infuriating to hear the Croatian government minister (the government) say that Croatia can be satisfied with the Brussels 17 points! Croatia cannot and must not be satisfied with getting Frontex EU border security personnel to bamboozle it into carrying a hard refugee burden that should have been and should be shared between Schengen countries or countries that invited them in the first place. Frontex seems a toothless tiger just as UN peace keeping forces were during the 1990’s war in Croatia backed by political interests of European elements who did not want the breakup of communist Yugoslavia. Croatia should rely on its own forces and Frontex can do the pencil-work of registering the refugees and illegal migrants if it wants. But, given that Croatia is currently ruled by those who didn’t want its freedom from communist Yugoslavia perhaps the 8 November general elections will provide Croatia with a new door into a future designed to nurture the protection of Croatian life as a priority. Once a government protects its own in earnest then helping others comes in earnest as well – the ruling Social Democrats’ political fiber, ex-communist league, has never and is never likely to look after Croats in earnest. The sooner the majority voters admit that the better for everyone. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Croatia, European Commission, refugee crisis Europe

Croatia Caught in EU Refugee Bedlam

September 20, 2015 by inavukic 43 Comments

Refugees stream into Croatia
Saturday 19 September 2015
Photo: Marko Mrkonjic/Pixsell

According to Croatian HRT TV news, Saturday 19 September evening edition, 21 000 refugees have entered Croatia from Serbia since Wednesday. The refugees, often referred to as the migrants, mostly from poor or war-torn countries in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, have streamed into Croatia since Wednesday, after Hungary blocked what had been the main route with a metal and razor-wire fence and riot police at its border with Serbia. Serbian authorities had then steered them and assisted them to Croatia’s borders and after Croatia closed its border with Serbia during the week, the refugees found alternative routes: they walked into Croatia through forests, corn and farm fields.

Crossing the border to Croatia
across farms and cornfields

Croatia’s prime minister, Zoran Milanovic wants to redirect the refugees flowing into his country to Hungary and Slovenia. He says Croatia can no longer receive refugees. However, the Hungarian government has, during the past couple of days, raised a barbed-wire fence along some 41 kilometer land border between it and Croatia (the rest of the border is a river) to keep the refugees out. Croatia has already transferred to the Hungarian border some 4,000 refugees and a couple of thousand to the Slovenian border. Both Hungary and Slovenia are resisting receiving the refugees and keep pounding vitriolic comments against Croatia.

Croatian Prime Minister
Zoran Milanoviuc inspects
a refugee food and first aid tent

After suddenly finding itself in the path of Europe’s biggest tide of migrants for decades, Croatia said on Friday it could no longer offer them refuge and would wave them on, challenging the EU to find a policy to receive them.
“We cannot register and accommodate these people any longer,” Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic told a news conference in the capital Zagreb.

“They will get food, water and medical help, and then they can move on. The European Union must know that Croatia will not become a migrant ‘hotspot’. We have hearts, but we also have heads.”

The arrival of 21,000 since Wednesday morning, many crossing fields and some dodging police, has proved too much for Croatia. It cannot sustain the burden economically or facilities wise.

The refugee crisis has left the EU scrambling for an effective response. Hungary has begun threatening Croatia that it will not recommend it becomes a Schengen area member state since it cannot contain its borders or offer aid to the influx of refugees. This criticism regarding humanitarianism comes from a country that just built 4-meter fences along its borders and chased off the refugees with tear gas and other types of violence as well as still sending bus loads to the Austrian border!

Police assist refugees in Croatia

With tempers clearly fraying, anything could happen in EU. Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic on Friday 18 September talked on the telephone with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the two agreed that the problem of the current migrant wave had to be solved on the EU’s external borders.

Such a scenario is actually alarming given that the refugees clearly do not want to remain at EU’s external borders – Greece, Bulgaria, Hungary, Croatia, Italy…so one wonders what Merkel and Milanovic meant by solving the problem on the EU’s external borders? Would force need to be used?

Refugees in Tovarnik, Croatia
waiting in line for food

Italy and Greece say they cannot cope with migrants coming by sea who, under the EU’s Dublin system, should be given shelter and potentially asylum in the first EU state they enter. Germany, France and other northern states complain Italy and Greece are ignoring the Dublin rules on registering asylum-seekers and helping them travel north through the Schengen area. They now complain Italy and Greece are slow to accept EU help to properly register migrants and send back non-refugees, meaning many can drift across Europe working without documents. Hungary blames Greece for the tens of thousands arriving there this summer and has now fenced off its border with Serbia and its new target to throw blame against is Croatia! Slovenia has also entered the blame and rejection game. It too, like Hungary says it will protect the Schengen borders! Greece and Italy are within the Schengen area also but have not protected the borders and, instead, moved the refugees onward into Europe – let someone else worry about them, would sum it up.

Assisting refugees onto buses
in Croatia
Saturday 19 September 2015

Germany, France and others criticise eastern states led by Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary for blocking a larger Jean Claude Juncker plan to relocate 120,000 according to quotas. Some say these ex-Communist states lack solidarity after years of receiving EU subsidies and could be penalised by having their grants cut. These eastern European countries accuse Germany of bullying, say relocation will only draw in more immigrants who will, in any case, not want to stay in eastern Europe but will defy the unenforceable Dublin rules and cross Schengen borders to Germany. They say that the EU bailed out Greece on a number of occasions and yet it does not seem to be getting the harsh criticism from Brussels as they are. Obviously EU isn’t going to change its composition of egotistical states any time soon.
Stung by criticism of “Brussels” for not being able to quieten the squabbles between member states affected by the refugee crisis, European Commission officials have noted that their power is limited. Variations in the welcome given to refugees or benefits offered are national prerogatives.

Croatia and
refugee crisis in EU

An EU emergency response system to provide extra frontier guards has been canvassed in Brussels but such a mechanism can only be triggered by invitation – something Athens, caught up in debt crisis and new elections, has yet to issue, reports Reuters.

Comforted by a strong vote on Thursday 17 September for its mandatory quota proposal in the European Parliament, another federalist institution, the European Commission declared this “a clear signal to … ministers … that it is high time to act and finally agree”.
But national leaders insist on first seeking consensus among states. “I feel an allergy to coercion,” their summit’s chairman Donald Tusk, a former Polish prime minister, said last week.
Juncker last week suggested a common EU border guard service and some officials believe a single EU asylum system could make better sense than a patchwork of national policies.

Syrian refugees (or migrants?) in Croatia

Now, one cannot throw caution to the wind and not ponder on the unwanted eventuality of EU setting up large refugee camps in Croatia as part of the solution, given that Croatia is outside the Schengen area. Could that possibility be in what Milanovic and Merkel reportedly agreed upon? That the problem needs to be solved on EU’s external borders! Could Croatia end up being a huge camp in which the refugees are housed until processed, until their refugee status confirmed or rejected and from where they would either be distributed to other EU countries or deported out of EU? Large numbers are in question. It’s estimated that besides the 500,000 that have already entered European Union countries, another 500,000 are expected the coming year. Having in mind points of entry one can estimate that about 200,000 will enter through Greece and then up to Croatia/Hungary. Such overwhelming numbers would have alarming and destructive effects on the culture and life in Croatia as we know it with large doses of security issues to breeding of radicalism and terrorism as has been observed in other EU countries where multiculturalism has been developing for decades.

Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic
President Of Croatia
Photo: Ivo Cagalj/Pixsell

Croatia’s Vecernji List reports that president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic had Saturday 19 September spoken to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and several state leaders about the migration crisis. She emphasised that the problem of the crisis is not only Croatian but also European and global and that it needs to be solved according to those premises. She said that Croatia would insist on solving the problem as being a global one as opposed to a local one. She expects that some 40,000 refugees will enter Croatia in the coming two days and that measures of security and other matters must be put in place in order to secure stability.
“Croatia is not a country of first entry, Serbia is qualified as a safe country and therefore there is no need for thousands of migrants to cross over daily to Croatia, we cannot absorb them. We must, first of all, be realistic, secure safety of our own citizens and the stability of our country. We must know who the people crossing our borders are, that it be under supervision, at official crossings, not illegally, then we need to know where they are going because we cannot take care of so many on a long term basis,” she said.
Now all Croatia needs is a consensus between the Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic and President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic regarding the safety and security but the likelihood of that happening to an ideal level is quite slim with general elections “around the corner”. I do so agree with President Grabar-Kitarovic that the problem is global and the UN must start playing a bigger role. That particularly with view to establishing more refugee camps outside the EU countries, including Serbia if they reach it from Turkey/Greece. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A.Ps. (Syd)

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Angela Merkel, Ban Ki-moon, bedlam, Croatia, disunity in EU over refugees, European Commission, European refugee crisis, Germany, Hungary, Jean-Claude Juncker, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, Serbia, Slovenia, Zoran Milanovic

Croatian MEP Joins Urge For Stepping-Up Dealing With Communist Crimes

July 23, 2014 by inavukic 31 Comments

With the new European Union Parliament on the way since elections in May 2014 and the election last week of Jean-Claude Juncker as the European Commission President there is a movement that caught my attention from the European Peoples’ Party (EPP) to make stronger steps forward regarding doing something about communist crimes rather than just sitting inanimately on the EU 2009 declaration which condemned totalitarian regimes.

It is well established that the European Parliament emphasises the need to keep alive – through remembrances etc. – memories of Europe’s tragic and horrendous past in order to keep paying respect to the victims, condemn those who perpetrated the crimes and to thus build foundations for reconciliation, which foundations are to be based on truth and remembrance. It also holds that Nazism was the dominant historical experience in Western Europe while Central and Eastern Europe had experienced both Nazism and Communism to equally dominant proportions that affected nations.

Regardless of what the EU Parliament may hold, the fact remains that the “original” EU, prior to expansion into Eastern Europe, had existed, and in many instances still does, quite comfortably under the conviction that World War II was good because it fought against fascism and Nazism. Along came Eastern Europe countries that do not fit this formula, that do not share this European memory – they brought to the EU the memory of Communism in its ugly robes, the robes that can perhaps be weighed through arguments of conservative European intellectuals and historians, particularly from Germany, who in the second half of 1980’s articulated their convictions that the Holocaust was not fundamentally different to other experiences of state terror and mass extermination in the 20th century, such as Stalinism, Communism. As one may expect such claims and views were strongly repudiated by mainstream left-wing intellectuals who insisted on the uniqueness of the “Final Solution” and denounced the historians’ writings as politically charged and revisionist, despite the fact these were founded on historical truths of horrendous crimes. Ten years later, in 1997, “The Black Book of Communism” was published in France – a critique of blindness among both intellectual and political elites towards Communist crimes due to focusing entirely on the Holocaust; a critique that was immediately rebuffed by a broad front of left-wing French writers and politicians who rejected outright any direct comparison between Nazism and Communism.

In April of 2009 the EU Parliament passed its Resolution on European Conscience and totalitarianism, condemning all totalitarian regimes crimes including communist regime ones.

Meanwhile and counting, over 850 mass graves of communist crimes victims had been discovered in Croatia alone – a horror story equally as atrocious as the Holocaust.

The achievements of European post-WWII integration are often described as a direct response and a real alternative to the suffering inflicted by two world wars and the Nazi tyranny that led to the Holocaust and to the expansion of totalitarian and undemocratic Communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe. And, indeed, a united Europe shall never be achieved until the EU recognises Nazism, Fascism and Communism as a common legacy and persists on dealing with their crimes thoroughly. While the crimes of Nazism and fascism have been dealt with strongly ever since the Nuremberg trials immediately after WWII such justice has conspicuously eluded the communist regimes’ crimes.

Remembrance debates at the EU level over the last decade can be seen as the replication of previous struggles in EU member states over how best to deal with the past and, as such, these debates remain just that – debates. Unlike in Western European Member States, where the notion of the historical uniqueness of the Holocaust still takes centre stage as an identification-marker, I believe, due to the lack of other viable founding narratives for European integration, at the more generalised European level the idea of Nazism and Communism as equally damnable is gaining acceptance particularly in the process of EU enlargement into the Eastern European countries. The latter have thus brought into the EU different cultures of remembrance where Communism joins Nazism at the helm of condemnation.

Full integration of EU will depend on the success of the process dealing with Communist crimes; lifting these to the level the Holocaust occupies in the collective psyche and historical memory and remembrance in the EU. Perhaps the relevant EU member states will see a more visible platform for dealing with communist crimes in the coming few years especially given the contents in the EPP letter to Jean-Claude Juncker and the possibility of actions, rather than declarations, to follow on the matter.

“The European project is based on common values of democracy, truth and reconciliation. The EPP Group emphasises the need to increase public awareness about European history and the crimes committed by totalitarian regimes. The EPP Group believes that the European Institutions, and notably the European Commission, should encourage a broad, European-wide discussion about the causes and consequences of totalitarian rule. This is not merely an historic or emotional problem. It is a problem for a truly comprehensive integration of Europe”, the 17 July EPP letter to Juncker states.
“I strongly believe that the European project can be built only on truth and reconciliation. The European Parliament has already condemned crimes committed by totalitarian regimes. But still, we are witnessing the relativisation of these crimes, especially in some countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Therefore the new Commission should continuously address this issue and support projects related to promoting European remembrance and conscience“, said Croatian Andrej Plenkovic MEP.
“I am convinced that it is of key importance to raise public awareness and to encourage a broad, European-wide discussion led by the European Commission about the causes and consequences of totalitarian rule to achieve historical conciliation. It is a question of reasserting and defending European values, which are being challenged by those countries outside the EU that have not yet come to terms with the past and are using falsified history to justify aggression against their neighbours“, emphasised Latvian Sandra Kalniete MEP, Vice-Chairwoman of the EPP Group.
“Unaddressed and neglected heritage of totalitarian crimes has proved to be a real obstacle to deepened European integration and remains a fertile soil for Euro-scepticism and extremism. Integrating different historic experiences of 28 member nations and sharing them mutually is the best guarantee of our common future“, underlined Estonian Tunne Kelam MEP.
The European Parliament emphasised in its Resolution on ‘European Conscience and Totalitarianism’ of 2 April 2009 that the goal of disclosure and assessment of the crimes committed by the Communist totalitarian regimes is reconciliation which can be achieved by admitting responsibility, asking for forgiveness and fostering moral renewal.
In order to attain the objectives of the EP 2009 Resolution, EPP Group MEPs believe that it is necessary that one of the new European Commissioners in Juncker’s team also includes in her/his portfolio topics related to European history and remembrance. More than 20 EPP Group MEPs signed an appeal to President Juncker in this regard.
The EPP Group is also of the opinion that the European Commission should find the most appropriate means to ensure an adequate degree of institutional and financial support for the work of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience which assumed a key role in promoting the prevention of intolerance, extremism, anti-democratic movements and the recurrence of any totalitarian rule in the future. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A.; M.A.Ps. (Syd)