Italy No Longer the Frontier of Europe

The Cold War in 1959, from The Historical Atlas of the 20th Century

Although Italy has always been considered "Central" Europe, it is becoming more so as Eastern European nations are becoming members of EU and NATO. On Bush's visit to Albania, he announced that Croatia, Albania, and Macedonia would be working on an Adriatic countries package for NATO membership. Croatia's EU membership also seems to be coming soon. This will insulate Italy from being on the fringe of a "hostile" border like it was through the Cold War.

Italy is also evolving to have less strategic interest for nations in NATO and the US as peace and prosperity are settling more on Europe. However, the US is still investing in US military installations such as in Vicenza where protests have been strong. It may be time for the US to reassess where their resources are spent and how it acheives their strategies and interests instead of defacing cultural icons with war residues. Now the US Embassy warns Americans to steer clear of Vicenza.

Croatian/Italian Relations Update

Tomorrow a conference will convene in Osijek to discuss more investing of Italy in the Slavonia region of Croatia. Slavonia is one of the hardest regions struck in the war with the Serbs.

It appears that easing of trade barriers may have influenced the sudden change in the Italian governments demeanor. In the end, money drives politics.

Italy already holds the majority stake in Croatian import partners at 16% and may likely try to make Croatia more dependant as EU entrance may make the nation a free-for-all.

Croatia is likely needing more economic spurring as it holds 17% unemployment and continues to see a growing trade deficit and driven primarily by who else but Italy.

Croatian/Italian Relations Revisited

It appears that Croatian/Italian relations have improved as of late with multiple indicators. Recently, relations were strained as Italians revisited grievances of WWII. Economic trade has been applauded on both sides, Prodi has defended Croatian EU acceptance, and Napolitano and Mesic have publically just declared that the WWII past is behind them and prior treaties still hold.

Why the sudden change? Was this a negotiation tactic for something greater? Did the Italians see their concessions as inevitable as the post WWII treaty already addressed the compensation of the war? Did the Italians win something more?

The regional summit meeting that just occured in Czech Republic may have had unsaid additional items that we may come to find out sooner than later. In the meantime, this brings good news to Croatian EU membership supporters.

Croatian/Italian Relations

As Croatia is making moves to joining the EU, Italy has called for the Croatians to reimburse lands and to apologize for the "ethnic cleansing" of Italians in the Istria region following WWII as Italian President Giorgio Napolitano describes.

In 1943-45, up to 10,000 were tortured or killed by Yugoslav communists who occupied the Istrian peninsula, now part of Croatia and Slovenia.

The demands have been building recently. The "exiles", or esuli, and "optants", or optanti, of the region now in living in Italy have not been able to take legal action in Croatia. A post-war contract between SFR Yugoslavia and Italy prevented the restitution of their property since a deal was made that seized this property as it was treated as war reparation. With its new EU leverage, Italy will hope to repair these "damages".

A map of the borders following WWI and WWII.

From: http://www.eux.tv/article.aspx?articleId=7160

West Balkan nations to cooperate on organised crime and migration

According to the UNODC (UN Office of Drugs and Crime), the
heroin route through Croatia and Slovenia into Italy and beyond has grown in
importance again. Ivica Kirin, interior minister for Croatia, the closest of
all the Balkan nations to EU accession, said that by working more closely to
stop cross-border crime, nations would not only be defending themselves but
the EU too.

Nearby Croatia seems to also have trouble controlling its 5835 km (3626 miles) of coastline and will be difficult to protect. This will be another issue that Italy will have to contend with with the approaching EU membership that would make international border crossing easier.

Additionally, Italy is now grappling with immigration legislation. If Croatia has difficulty controlling its coastline now, other issues such as immigration will be a factor and may mean a bigger in flux of migrants to Italy assuming Croatia reaches EU status.

In a more recent report of Croatian massacre, the Hague is indicting a number of Croatians for their attack and expulsion of ethnic Serbs from Croatia. Croatia's former and deceased President Franjo Tuđman has been reported saying on video, "blows that will make the Serbs all but disappear, in other words, those we don’t reach immediately, must capitulate in the next few days."

With newer and fresh reports of war crimes, the Italians efforts to win over land for the esuli for an event over 50 years ago will probably be easy considering the other transgressions that may give Croatia difficulty in its bid for EU membership.