Those Naive Candidates

I often have a difficult time explaining to citizens of candidate countries what joining the EU really means. They have a rosy image of all the pros and no knowledge whatsoever of the cons of membership. I mentioned last week how upset some people got by the mere mention that EU membership might have negative rather than positive results for Turkey. Now it seems there are people in Serbia who are less naive. Here is an example, taken from a blogger who sees the story a little different from me.

In reply, one of the officials, a deputy minister, said that he did not believe that outsiders should be fixated on Serbia's EU prospects. It was not that important for the country. In fact, many investors had told him how pleased they were that Serbia was outside of the EU as it did not have to comply with various regulations, such as those relating to the environment.

So some people are starting to understand that EU meddling has a very high price especially for developing economies. As a country so recently devastated by war, worrying about whether people are working more than 48 hours a week, or whether a chemical that has been in use for decades has been tested and approved by some Brussels Bureacrat is probably not at the top of the agenda.