FORUM OF SCHOOLS OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATIONS

Topic: "Road of the CEE countries to the EU and Balkan perspective"

Guest: Dr Judy Batt

Moderator: Mr Momcilo Radulovic, Secretary General of the European Movement in Montenegro

Forum of European Integration Schools was formally opened with a lecture by Dr. Judy Batt, expert of the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) in Paris. This lecture, titled „Road of the Central and East European Counties to the European Union and Balkan perspective", dealt with the state of the art regarding EU-Western Balkans relations, problematic of the accession process and the particular difficulties encountered by Western Balkan countries in this process, with comparative analyses of the experiences of CCE countries.

According to Dr. Batt, lately there has been a remarkable sense of dissatisfaction, disappointment and impatience, not only in the countries of Western Balkans, but also within EU. Uncertainties are being reinforced by the failure of European Constitution together with the warnings of the "enlargement fatigue". In reality, said Dr. Batt, the current state of affairs in the region by no means justifies such fears. "On the one hand, countries of the Western Balkans are at the very beginning of their accession process, so it is natural that there should problems", explained Dr. Batt, comparing the current situation with that of Slovakia in 1996. On the other hand, only in the last year there have been plenty of steps forward in this direction: Croatia and Turkey, and later Macedonia, were granted candidate country status; Serbia and Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina began negotiations for Stabilization and Association Agreement, while Albania completed the negotiation process in December.

However, there are some important differences with Central European Countries, and these have been the real source of all worries.

First of all, says Dr Batt, the time is short in South-East Europe to be waiting for gradual reforms. European Union continues to develop, and there is a fear that Western Balkans countries will have more difficulties catching up. After the fall of communism in CEE, there was an all-encompassing consensus about the "Return to Europe", and these countries did their best to prove their right to be European. The fear of enlargement existed in EU at that time as well, but the reform forces in CEE were strong enough to compel EU to accept them and to adjust itself to the changing reality.

South East European countries lack these internal drivers of reform. "We, from the European Union constantly fear that, unless we keep pushing, the whole process is going to come to a halt, or even that new conflicts are going to erupt. The events in Macedonia in 2001 and in Kosovo in 2004 prove that this scenario is not impossible", said Dr Batt.

According to her, the core of the problem is, first of all, the unsolved statehood issue, and then the pervasive lack of trust.

To start the reforms, it is essential to have a functional state and to create a nation-wide consensus about this process. On the territory of South East Europe even a state with a completely solved statehood status is hard to come across, let alone a consolidated, functional state.

On the other hand, it is not easy to begin building one, seen the enormous lack of trust among all actors in the region. "There is a lack of trust all over the place", said Dr Batt. This lack of trust is obvious among the countries in the region, but also within them: between various entities or elites, where democratic politics have become a zero-sum game. This, by Dr Batt dubbed "militarization of politics", has an impact on the attitude of ordinary citizens, who look at politics with either cynicism or apathy.

There is a lack of political will, said Ms. Batt, but it is also a fact that in these conditions it is extremely difficult for any government to mobilize social capital for reform. An obvious example is Macedonia, whose government has been scoring one success after another in the field of European Integration, while its population remains completely indifferent: they don’t feel these successes, and they don’t believe them.

Finally, there is a significant lack of trust towards European Union, which, unfortunately, is neither unilateral nor unjustified. For the countries of CEE, since 1989, "Return to Europe" was a slogan that managed to mobilize all social actors. The long-sealed borders suddenly opened, and the people embraced European Union as an integral part of their new national identity. For the Balkan states, these 15 years meant wars, isolation, economic sanctions criminalizing state administration and breaking all contacts with Europe, which, all up to that point was at a hand’s reach. Many people in the region still believe that European Union had let them down, that it did not help them out when the help was needed, and that it still treats them unfairly, imposing a visa regime that isolates the people and punishes them for their governments' lack of cooperation. Civil society activists get very little support from EU, which is partly a mistake of the bureaucratic "machinery" which is geared for big amounts of money which are more suitable for the government programs than for the civil society projects. On the other hand, EU itself doesn’t trust any more "democratic" forces in the region, whose credibility for reforms decreases as time goes by, and EU reacts by tightening the grip and enforcing conditionality.

According to Judy Batt, in order to break from this vicious circle of mistrust, it is necessary firs of all to resolve all statehood issues, to build nation-wide consensus with respect to reforms and to involve all social actors. All questions which could, in the long run, destabilize societies, must be solved now: first of all the issue of Kosovo and Montenegro, and then the problem of power alternations.

(reported by Centre for Civic Education)