Miffed Croatian region fears unequal access to EU money

For English-speakers it is a somewhat unfortunate acronym covering a dull-sounding issue. But for member states, Nuts - the EU system for statistically dividing up regions - is the key to access deep pots of money.

Regions qualify for EU aid money if their per capita GDP is under 75 percent of the EU average. There are currently 270 "basic regions" in the EU. When Croatia joins next year there will be two more - Continental Croatia and Adriatic Croatia.

But the country's poorest r...