Western Balkans: on the EU Path to Avoid Further Balkanization
In order to become an integrative part of the EU family, it is necessary to implement all the European values, to include youth and work on the improvement of the educational system. It needs to be kept in mind that the lack of clear EU perspective would lead the Region to Balkanization of Europe.
The Berlin Process in Belgrade: The EU as a Peace Project Revisited in the Western Balkans moderated by Ivan Vejvoda has touched many important issues of acceleration of the Western Balkans countries to the EU.
Christian Danielsson has emphasized that it is of great importance to take step by step approach during the process of acceleration and use all of the potential to continue and commit further to regional cooperation. In accordance with this, Mladen Ivanić stressed out that ordinary people have to feel distinguishable benefits in order to develop further regional cooperation.
On the other hand, Dejan Jović mentioned recent events concerning the refugee crises between Serbia and Croatia elaborating that both countries are trying to make use of it, by showing their recent positions, Croatia as a member of the EU, and Serbia as a country with changed image. This crisis produced by the EU has exported tensions in this region and disturbed mutual relations between countries.
Brussels Process has helped improvement of the relations between Serbian and Albanian Prime Ministers, which reminded us on the Stability Pact in new edition and in different circumstances, said Remzi Lani.
“If we want to build democracy in this region we need to learn how to compromise”, underlined Ramadan Ilazi. In order for this region to become an integrative part of the EU, it is necessary to fulfil all the conditions concerning market economy, so it could become an asset to the EU family, emphasized Malazogu.
In accordance to speeding up of the EU integrations of the region, Alex Roinishvili Grigorev said that it is necessary to include civil society organizations in order to further promote European values. Hedvig Morvai also recognized the need to continue the work on the regional cooperation, but more important to focus on how to build the trust among ordinary citizens.
At the end, Sonja Licht raised the question whether civil society organizations put enough effort in the process of the EU integrations. She stressed the importance of the need for the political elite to be aware, to think in advance and to be more responsible towards European future.
- Florian Bieber‚ Professor of Southeast European Studies and director of the Centre for Southeast European Studies at the University of Graz
- Selmo Cikotić‚ Dean, American School of Government, American University in BiH
- Christian Danielsson‚ Director General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement negotiations, DG NEAR, European Commission
- Alex Roinishvili Grigorev‚ President, Council for Inclusive Governance
- Ramadan Ilazi‚ Deputy Minister of European Integration, Government of Kosovo
- Mladen Ivanić‚ Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Dejan Jović‚ Professor, Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb
- Remzi Lani‚ Executive Director of the Albanian Media Institute
- Sonja Licht‚ President of the Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence
- Leon Malazogu‚ Executive Director, Democracy for Development, Pristina
- Hedvig Morvai‚ Director of the European Fund for the Balkans
- Ivan Vejvoda‚ Senior Vice President of the German Marshall Fund
Recommendations for EU Integration of the Western Balkans. Paper prepared by Pierre Mirel, Honorary Director General of the European commission. This paper represents his personal views and does not engage the European commission.
