I'd be interested to know what 'hindrances from Brussels' prevent us from trading with other countries today.
As for the wars in Yugoslavia, they were essentially an external security matter, which is precisely what Nato is for. The EU may have failed to resolve the conflict by diplomatic means, but so did everyone else - hardly the first time that had happened in the Balkans. (We might even take the view that that lack of a common foreign policy indicates that the EU is not the 'superstate' its detractors claim.) Since then, however, EU membership has been the incentive for Slovenia and Croatia to improve their internal positions on human rights and freedom of trade, and Serbia and Montenegro are working towards membership now.
The Balkan region is more stable now than at any time since it had Tito to sit on the lid, and common interests as EU members and aspirants have played a positive role there.
Incidentally, I'm meeting one Balkan customer on Friday and working on a deal with another. Both would have been far harder to set up if the UK weren't a member of the EU.
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