UNMIK ON AIR

27^th June 2003

EU – WESTERN BALKANS ECONOMY

(By Zoran Culafic)

Hello and welcome to Unmik on Air with Sputnik Kilambi and Martin Redi

The Western Balkans have been offered a clear roadmap to Europe – integration into the EU is irreversible they were told, but countries in the region need to carry out drastic political and economic reforms in order to qualify for membership.

Sustained economic growth, stress analysts, is indispensable for long-term stability and democracy in the region – and western Balkan countries have their work cut out to deal with the challenges ahead. Rampant organized crime and corruption are the key obstacles to any progress according to the EU, which has pledged both funds and political direction to bring the war-ravaged region into the expanding union.

Chris Patten is the EU’s external affairs commissioner.

Chris Patten: One of the things they have to do is to make sure they have in place proper arrangements to ensure that the custom services operates effectively, both at the air port and the seaports. There are people they should arrest; there are crimes that they should prosecute, so there’s plenty for them to do.

The EU is offering more money, 200 million euros in addition to the 4 billion dollars already promised, it is also opening up new budget lines to help with European integration. Funding is now aimed at specific projects, because as Frane Marejovic, spokesman for the European Commission delegation to Bosnia explains, the question is how much money these countries can really absorb.

Frane Marejovic: You can put in a lot of money into reconstruction, into infrastructure, but when you’re talking about technical assistance projects; the projects, which deal with strengthening of certain sectors, there’s only so much you can do at a certain time. That was also why the issue of funding was not so large, and the other issue was of course that the EU member states did not wish to give up more money because they have so many other priorities in the world.

Five billion euro has been earmarked for the Western Balkans between 2000 and 2006. However it’s not just a question of how much money the EU is willing to put in. Equally crucial is to understand how the money is being spent, and here according to Judy Dempsey, Brussels-based diplomatic correspondent for the Financial Times, the track record hasn’t been great.

Judy Dempsey: As a tax payer I do not mind supporting the western Balkans because it’s for security and stability as well, it is reciprocal, but what I do mind is constant asking for money when it’s not being applied to state building (edit) there’s got to be full transparency, its got to be about state building and not bringing in permanent bureaucrats and creating a climate of dependency.

Nonetheless the Thessalonica summit was important, not just for potential future members of the EU, but also because it clearly spelt out Europe’s commitment to the region. Of course on condition that they clean up their backyards.

Financial and other assistance can only go this far in addressing the problems of the region, insists Frane Marejovic. Bosnia for example is unable to address issues in several areas.

Frane Marejovic: It does get international assistance but something you need to show, some kind of political maturity, in order to address the difficult issues yourself, which will maybe require changing of a significant legal structure, changes in the economy, increase in privatization. These are the things the countries have to do themselves.

But while Balkan countries accept the need for far reaching reform, suspicions remain about how serious the EU is about their future integration, given the refusal to set a date. Brussels based journalist Ines Sabolic of the Croatian Sense News Agency.

Ines Sabolic: Put yourself in the shoes of a European, would you like some 40 millions Polish to come in and take your jobs, would you like Hungarians, Czechs, Slovaks, citizens of Baltic countries … who are living in totally different conditions. And that’s not all, you’d have to accept some 30 million Bulgarians and Romanians as well, and on top of that you’d have to accept former Yugoslavian countries, and Albania. I think Europe is not as united on that issue as one thinks, … edit to – and they would try to protect themselves in some way.

Southeastern Europe has no alternative though but to accept the conditions for joining the EU. As Ines Sabolic points out, it will not be all milk and honey, but it remains the only option for many countries, because they can’t stay isolated. Yes, it is possible to stay outside the EU, she adds, but only if you are Switzerland or Norway.

Ines Sabolic: Imagine what will happen with those crowds of Polish people who will suffer when EU agricultural products, cheap and bad-quality agricultural products, flood the Polish market, … edit … Thus they will become a “homeless people”, and they would not have the opportunity to go to the EU job market, because the market is not so free. But despite of all of that they decided to join the EU.

Nobody is pretending that the road to Europe is easy. But both it seems equally clear that this process is irreversible. As Chris Patten said, the western Balkans is a missing piece of the European jigsaw.

As for the region itself, says Gregor Krajc, government spokesperson for Slovenia, the first country from ex Yugoslavia to be accepted in the EU, it is still much better to be a member than to remain isolated.

Gregor Krajc: Of course there are pressures regarding the economy. But if you want to be a part of the global economy today, you’d face those pressures anyway, with or without the Union.

So whether the much vaunted hole in the map of Europe is filled or not depends as much on efforts made by the western Balkan nations as it does on European commitment.

That brings us to the end of this edition of UNMIK ON AIR. Thanks for listening.