Balkan greens demand ‘democracy’ in EU funding pact

Date: 13/02/03

By David Cronin

BALKAN green activists have launched a campaign for greater transparency in the EU-led programme seeking to reinvigorate the war-shattered region.

They are angry that they have no role in a key subgroup of the Stability Pact for South-Eastern Europe.

Known as Working Table II, this considers applications for large-scale infrastructure projects such as roads and waterways and handles 80 of the pact's funding.

"This is a question of democracy," said Ivona Malbasic, Croatian coordinator for the Bankwatch network. "Decisions are being made that will affect the lives of millions of people, but many people in our countries still know very little about the Stability Pact."

Set up by activists from Bosnia, Bulgaria and Croatia, the campaign aims to raise awareness about the impact which the body's work will have, particularly on the environment.

Stability Pact spokesman Roland Bless said that the pact had to respect the statutes of the financial institutions, which gave no scope for the campaigners to be consulted. "Financial institutions have to go by their own rules," he remarked. "It's not within the discretion of the Stability Pact to alter them."

Bless added that non-governmental organisations are regularly invited to take part in the pact's other activities, such as its work on human rights.

The Stability Pact was founded in 1999 in response to the crisis in Kosovo. Its donors have allocated it some €2.4 billion so far.

Meanwhile, the chairwoman of the pact's task force on human-trafficking has lamented the lack of progress made in a Montenegrin case. All suspects in the case - which hit the headlines last November when a 28-year-old female victim of the 'sex-slave trade' asked police in Podgorica for help - have been released because of a legal technicality.

"I call upon all those responsible in Montenegro to institute court proceedings," said Helga Konrad. "Only a fair court trial can bring the truth to light."

Balkan green activists have launched a campaign for greater transparency in the EU-led programme seeking to reinvigorate the war-shattered region. They are angry that they have no role in a key subgroup of the Stability Pact for South-Eastern Europe, known as Working Table II.