António Costa, Portugal's prime-minister, considered the speech of the Dutch minister of finances "disgusting", which this Thursday said that countries like Spain should be investigated for not having a budgetary margin to fight the financial crisis caused by coronavirus.

And I’m sorry but Slovenia? Really? You compare Yugoslavia to the EU? Slovenia is only winning due to the EU.

Alright after sifting through this pile of bollocks this final sentence is what really tipped me off. No Yugoslavia is not directly comparable to the EU, for one because it was a federal state and not a loose union of states but there are some similarities one may use to draw a parallel, particualry when it comes to movement of people and interactions between said people, which was the point that initially sparked this "discussion".

Secondly, Slovenia was the cultural heartland of Yugoslavia and was at the forefront of many developments, be it in arts, literature, sports, etc, positioning itself in a very advantageous position in the polarised world of the cold war, while also greatly benefiting from influx of people from all over Yugoslavia to bolster that progress.

Now from a purely monetary perspective Slovenia in particular out of all the ex-Yu countries has greatly benefited from the EU but that came at a cost of the aforementioned traits that have essentially evaporated in the grand scheme of things. Besides, had the Yugoslav dissolution not occurred(with reform-implementation ofc)/occurred differently, I have not a shred of doubt the country would be far better off today.

/r/europe Thread Parent Link - record.pt