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Copyright � 2002 The International Herald
Tribune | www.iht.com
| Give Balkan nations their proper place in
Europe |
Martti Ahtisaari
IHT
Saturday, June 21, 2003 |
| Continental unity
HELSINKI As the European Union
prepares to welcome 10 more nations - with Bulgaria and Romania
hopefully entering soon afterward - we risk squandering years of
effort and betraying our European ideal if we do not also embrace
those neighboring countries that, for now, remain
outside.
The historic project of integrating Europe will not
be complete until we have incorporated the five nations of the
Western Balkans - Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, the former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Serbia and Montenegro. While the
EU Commission says that it recognizes that their eventual membership
is inevitable, these promises risk seeming insincere.
There
is a danger that these countries will be allowed to fall further
behind their future EU partners, rather than being brought into the
European mainstream. Even in their immediate region, the disparity
is widening as Bulgaria and Romania receive generous EU support for
structural reform and rural development in preparation for accession
as early as 2007. This divergence is a threat to us all.
What
is needed is an act of vision by EU leaders at the summit meeting
this week at Thessaloniki to position the states of the Western
Balkans to take their proper place in Europe. Given their tumultuous
recent history, it is premature to grant these countries formal
status as candidates for EU membership. But that is no reason not to
make available preaccession programs that will strengthen the social
and economic cohesion of the continent.
In a joint communiqu�
this month, the presidents of five Western Balkan states insisted
that their countries see their future inside the union. Their
declaration revealed a new self-confidence and determination to fix
the region's problems, particularly organized crime and corruption.
Their unprecedented display of common purpose was a powerful
demonstration of the fact that the Western Balkan nations are no
longer hopelessly divided and are capable of handling structural EU
assistance in the same way their Eastern neighbors, Bulgaria and
Romania, have done.
To its credit, the Greek EU presidency
has proposed spending an additional E300 million on the Western
Balkans and shifting support from reconstruction - which is largely
complete - to stimulating economic development. Aid to the region
would be moved into the budget for preaccession
countries.
The Greek plan would send a welcome signal to the
long-suffering people of the Western Balkans that they can look
forward to being welcomed into the Union. It also amounts to an
acknowledgment by the EU that the challenge in the area is no longer
to provide humanitarian or reconstruction aid, but to address deeper
structural problems, such as low agricultural productivity,
deindustrialization and the need to retrain the work
force.
Another signal of Europe's commitment to the region
would be if the EU would ease and then lift the visa regime, as it
did with Croatia. At present, visas make travel from the region to
the European Union difficult.
Nevertheless, the proposal
faces opposition at Thessaloniki. Some member states and some in the
European Commission evidently believe they can get away with
offering increased political dialogue, parliamentary cooperation,
support for institution-building and tokens such as student exchange
programs. That is simply not enough.
Without sustained
economic growth, there just will not be long-term stability and
democracy in the area. A minimalist approach will only ensure that
the organized crime, migration and trafficking that beset the
Western Balkans continue to spill over into the EU.
At
bottom, the debate is really over eventual EU membership for the
Western Balkan states. The European public and their leaders need to
recognize that integration offers the best prospect for the
continent's peace and prosperity. A far-sighted policy would treat
Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic
of Macedonia, and Serbia and Montenegro the way Bulgaria and Romania
are treated now, and put them firmly on the road to
membership.
The writer is chairman of the International
Crisis Group.
![]() Copyright � 2002 The International Herald
Tribune
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