Croatia vs Verdis – the EU’s strangest eastern border spat
Call it the Switzerland of Eastern Europe or, if that feels too ambitious, a secular Vatican on the Danube River.
Verdis is Europe’s latest self-declared microstate, built on three political ideas: neutrality, mediation and humanitarianism and just 0.5 km² of land.
It exists along the eastern EU border because of a long-running dispute between Croatia and Serbia. The two countries share 137 km of frontier but disagree on where exactly the line runs, leaving small pockets that neither side fully claims.
And so in 2023, British-Australian Daniel Jackson – the current president – and a group of backers set out to fund their own republic on the west bank of the Danube.
Jackson told Euractiv that the idea first came up in 2014. But finding unclaimed land in 21st century Europe is not exactly straightforward.
Like many would-be states, Verdis has leaned heavily into symbols and identity-building. When I speak to Jackson, a flag hangs on the wall behind him. One could easily…
