Milanović Admits: Serbia Under Vučić Grew as Fast as Croatia, and Without EU Funds

Croatian President Zoran Milanović stood in front of students at the Faculty of Political Science in Zagreb and said something rarely heard across that border: Serbia, while Aleksandar Vučić was in power, grew as fast as Croatia, if not slightly faster. And it did so without the European money Zagreb relies on as an EU member.

The numbers, according to Milanović, are these. Over the last ten years or so, Croatia had average annual growth of around 2.5 percent - and that with all the extraordinary funds it drew down. "Without that money, the figure would have been even lower," he said. Serbia over the same period had average growth equal to Croatia's or a tenth of a point higher, "without European money to any significant degree, with some Chinese and with far less Russian investment".

A tenth of a point is no economic domination - it's practically a draw. But a draw between a country that is in the Union and uses its funds, and a country that has been waiting at the door for years. This is a sentence Brussels needs to hear more than Belgrade does. If European money doesn't make the difference in growth, what exactly is being offered to the candidates?

When a Croatian president publicly puts Serbian numbers side by side with Croatian ones, it doesn't go unnoticed in the region. Milanović himself said these are real parameters and clear facts that everyone making decisions in the region should think about.

Everyone - which means in Skopje too. Macedonia has been a membership candidate since 2005 and lives between European promises and investment coming from other directions. Is anyone in the government counting the decimals this soberly - or is growth still measured by the number of ribbons cut?