VIEWPOINT FROM LONDON

WELCOMING THE NEW EUROPE?

by Brian Gallagher

The Croatian Herald, Australia No. 1011 - 23.04.04

 

With the EU due to expand to 25 members on May 1, its worth considering attitudes in the UK regarding Central and Eastern Europe - the new Europe. If Croatia intends to join the EU it will need to take note of these attitudes, as they have an impact on political decisions made in the UK which may have an effect on Croatia.

Most people in the UK are fairly ignorant of the countries of the new Europe. Images often tend to be of grim ex-Soviet states, war and organised crime. There is nothing new about such negative images; the existed nearly a hundred years ago due to political terrorism in Eastern Europe, and incidents such as the Sydney Street siege - involving East European anarchists - in East London in 1911.

The expansion of the EU has led to fears that Britain will be swamped by migrants from these new countries - Britain's tabloid press has had much to say. Immigration was a major issue regardless of EU expansion, 'bogus' asylum seekers and so forth. But the expansion has brought a new round of stories in the tabloid press. And just now, its resulted in the resignation of a government minister - albeit in relation to future EU members Bulgaria and Romania.

This latest scandal involves a scam regarding Bulgarians and Romanians coming to the UK. Essentially, the UK Home Office let people into the UK without appropriate checks. Further, concerns that forged documents were being submitted by applicants to come to the UK were ignored. It also transpired that prior to being appointed to Zagreb the new UK ambassador to Croatia, Sir John Ramsden, wrote to the Home Office complaining about the scam. After much media pressure, Beverly Hughes MP resigned as Immigration Minister. The press had a field day with this story, and have poured scorn on Tony Blair's government. Indeed, Blair himself was forced to convene a top level Downing Street summit on the matter.

However, as one Bulgarian put in London's 'Independent' newspaper, long after Beverly Hughes will be forgotten, some of the public will remember Bulgarians in relation to such scams - despite British lawyers being involved in the scam and the fact that the vast majority of Bulgarians are here quite legally.

Ironically, it seems that fears of people swamping countries claiming benefits etc is two way thing; an agreement was signed in Prague recently in order to discourage people from Western Europe travelling to Central/Eastern Europe to take advantage of cheaper health care facilities. This has not been overly reported in the British press.

As can be seen, the image of the new Europe is not what it could be. Things aren't helped by people who should know better. In its February edition, an academic journal, 'The South-East Europe Newsletter' published a parody - written under a pseudonym - of a visit to Zagreb, which compared Croats to 'Orcs' - repellent creatures from Lord of the Rings, vague anti-Catholic comments, talk of rancid meat being sold in Zagreb market, an unfavourable comparison to "civilised westernised compatriots" in Belgrade and much else. Parody or not this was unacceptable, especially in the present climate. The newsletter's editor did inform me that the piece was not intended to offend but to make fun of uninformed British travel writers. But offend it did. A tabloid journalist happening across such a piece may not realise it is satire.

Unfortunately its publication has not assuaged the concerns of some that UK academia dealing with ex-Yugoslavia has little time for Croatia. It's certainly hard to think that Serbia would have been the featured country in such a spoof within UK academia. Indeed, had such a parody referred in similar terms to one of Britain's Asian communities for example, there would have been a great outcry - rightly so.

Its not all bad; recently I attended celebration of EU expansion held by the Ealing, Acton Shepherds Bush branch of my party, the Liberal Democrats; along with diplomatic representation from all the new EU countries, Croatia was also invited, and many people noted the large turnout of Croats to the event. Profile and presence is important, and Croatia needs to bear that in mind.

What's clear from all this, is that Croatia has image problems in addition to those in relation to the war. Although Croats never feature in these stories about scams and criminals and so on, Croatia is tainted by association, being part of Central/Eastern Europe. If there is a continued backlash against EU expansion to the east, this could present problems for Croatia's EU accession. It certainly does not help in terms of the UK Home Office rescinding the visa requirement for Croats to come to the UK. Its worth noting that apart from the UK's stance of effectively vetoing Croatia's EU chances due to the Gotovina issue*, having a visa regime with Croatia is also an effective veto.

Croatia does well here in tourism coverage - something positive appears almost every week. This does help, but Zagreb should also put resources in Croatian cultural activities in Britain, to match the efforts made by other Central/East European countries to produce a better image of the country. In this way, an informed audience can be created that will help offset negative images of the entire region east of the EU - which will very soon mean only a few countries - and ensure a warmer welcome for Croatia into the European mainstream.

*written before Britain's softening of stance on 19 April.

 

© Brian Gallagher

My 'Viewpoint from London' column appears fortnightly in the Australian 'Croatian Herald' and thereafter at www.croatiafocus.com