| Series Title | European Voice |
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| Series Details | Vol.9, No.24, 26.6.03, p15 |
| Publication Date | 26/06/2003 |
| Content Type | News |
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Date: 26/06/03 HISTORY students are being taught that some of Europe's most calamitous episodes of the 20th century had their roots in the Balkans. There was a feeling in Thessaloniki that mistakes of the past must not be repeated. Chris Patten, the external relations commissioner, said that drawing the five states of the western Balkans (Bosnia, Croatia, Albania, Macedonia and the Serbia-Montenegro federation) into the Union should form part of a long-term strategy to ensure peace. He described the region as "one of the missing pieces of the jigsaw" called European integration. In the words of one EU official, the Union is providing a "great amount of money" to the western Balkans. Its heads of state and government agreed at Thessaloniki to back a European Commission blueprint, to increase funding for the five countries by €70 million per year between now and 2006. This is additional to the €4.65 billion already earmarked for the region. But is this enough? A new study by the International Crisis Group (ICG) laments that while aid to Serbia under the EU's Community Assistance for Reconstruction, Development and Stabilization programme rose in 2001-2003, aid for Kosovo fell from €316 million to €53 million in the same period. Aid to Montenegro also fell from €16.3 million to €13.5 million, increasing its dependence, says the ICG, "on the more generous assistance that it receives from the United States". "If the European vocation of the Balkan states is a serious policy goal, then there should quite simply be more money in the pot," the ICG notes. The priorities should also be reconsidered, it adds. "The concentration on institution-building is, of course, important. But the EU seems to expect others will take care of the investment in infrastructure and education that is also essential for the region's long-term development. "What is the use of having a beautifully developed administration in Sarajevo, when the [Bosnian] capital is so poorly connected by road to its neighbouring countries?" Patten acknowledged that some of the steps taken to bring the Balkans out of its economic morass have not had the desired effects. For example, the EU's June 2000 decision that goods sent from the western Balkans to the Union would no longer be subject to tariffs has not proved to be a boon for the region's exporters. Among the problems encountered has been the difficulty of complying with the Union's exacting veterinary and food safety standards. Despite all the problems, there is a widespread hope among the western Balkans that they would join the Union by 2007 or 2008. Yet the ICG finds that only Croatia has a chance of meeting the Union's criteria for membership by then. The earliest possible membership dates it envisages for Serbia and Montenegro (either as a federation or two separate states), Macedonia and Albania is 2010. Accession for Bosnia and any future independent state of Kosovo might be possible in 2015, it adds, but not before then. Chris Patten, European Commissioner for External Relations, has called on the EU to devise a long term strategy to bring the five states of the Western Balkans into the EU in order to ensure peace in the region. |
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| Countries / Regions | Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia, Southeastern Europe |
