Dans comments:

Croatia: No comment. (It's rubbish.)

Country profile: (further details available on the BBC website)

Croatia emerged into the new millennium from a decade in which it experienced a bitter war as the former Yugoslavia broke up, and several years of authoritarian nationalism under the late president, Franjo Tudjman.

By early 2003 it had made sufficient progress to apply formally for EU membership, becoming the second former Yugoslav republic after Slovenia to do so. Accession talks are expected to begin in 2005.