Croatia started detailed accession negotiations with the European Union on June 11, eight months after receiving formal approval. Croatia’s Prime Minister Ivo Sanader hopes the talks are concluded by 2009, but no accession date has been set.

For each policy area, Brussels decides whether negotiations will start. “The negotiation phase itself in fact involves little in the way of negotiations,” reported EUbusiness. “[R]ather it involves the candidate state proving that it meets EU standards and is in line with EU law across the board” (June 12).

Croatia’s membership will help fulfill a long-held Eurocrat dream: domination of the Balkans. Germany deliberately ignited a conflict in that region when it recognized the independence of Croatia and Slovenia in 1991. That conflict was intended to culminate in the subsuming of the Balkans to the EU, an event that signifies the prophesied rising beast in Europe.