Twelve years after a gruelling war for independence, Croatia has become a quiet, respectable, almost ordinary central European state. In the final days of campaigning for parliamentary elections due on November 25, moderate parties on the left and the right are vying to lead the country of 4.6m into Nato and the European Union.

An invitation from Nato at the Bucharest summit next April looks nearly certain. However, much still needs to be put in place, both domestically and in Brussels, for Croatia to enter the EU within the next four years.