yep, that's my assessment also. staying in england and now here in portugal makes me nervous, but being a semi-independent territory (not quite sovereign but EU member) things are not quite so well enforced, mainly because the population here is aging fast and the old people don't have the patience or will to comply, the police are lax about most things, only really the portuguese gendarmes are "strong" - mainly on collecting taxes from tradesmen driving their vans and trucks on highways. my taxi driver neighbour told me about their checkpoints and aggressive revenue enforcement. the only countries in the EU, or adjacent/candidates for accession (i think macedonia is, and slovenia, maybe croatia but serbia and bosnia are not). bulgaria is probably the most free country in the EU, but it's slid down so far since i first arrived in 2013. probably Lichtenstein, but you have to be pretty rich to live there. lichtenstein is one of the few remaining monarchies in the world, i think bhutan is also. balkans non-EU members are poor countries, but for food, and heating, they are pretty much ok, in the rural areas, most places are on wood heating and there is plenty of supply of wood in the hills and mountains. sounds quite sketchy the situation with serbia right now, with USA insisting they stop running an oil refinery that is going to be owned by non-russians in 3 months time, all the processes are in flow, but USA is bullying them again. it is going to be quite the uproar if they don't relent. i'm sure russia is going to leverage it as much as they can, as Medvedev, i think it was "serbia seems to have forgotten who their friends are".