Message from the EU-Western Balkans conference: Credibility needs to be restored to European integration, decisions from last summit will have negative consequences for region

The decision of the European Union not to grant candidate status to any new country from the Western Balkans at the last summit did not give a positive signal to the region and further undermined the credibility of the accession process, it was said at the conference Banja Luka organized Transparency International in BiH. International experts, former diplomats, decision-makers from BiH and the surrounding area, representatives of academia and civil society spoke at the conference, and the common conclusion is that the region needs stronger EU engagement, new impetus for integration and support in key reforms such as the rule of law.

The complete halt in the process of European integration in the region came due to the increasingly pronounced authoritarian tendencies of domestic leaders, accompanied by the violation of the rule of law, civil and media freedoms. The desire of the political elites in the countries of the Western Balkans is obviously to maintain the current situation, and the previous approach of the Brussels administration has many times led to rewarding those who violated the European path, the rule of law and fundamental civil liberties.

On the other hand, internal problems in the EU itself have led to a blockade of the European path and those countries that have met difficult conditions, and the result is a decline in public support for the European integration process, which will certainly be an aggravating factor in the future.

In the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina, only one of the 14 key priorities met the technical condition of setting up a Parliamentary Committee on European Integration, while authorities blocked all key reforms to enable the rule of law and the fight against corruption. Despite the fact that the vast majority of political actors are committed to European integration, everything that has happened in recent years clearly shows that the key goal of the ruling elites is to obstruct these reforms, preserve the levers of power and the current state of widespread corruption. The participants in the conference also criticized the EU’s approach so far, which has spent huge funds on judicial reform and other reforms that have not yielded results because solutions that are not adapted to the situation in the region have been forced.

Therefore, the message is that the EU should insist more strongly on fulfilling the key conditions in the area of the rule of law, democratic transition and the fight against corruption, because the latest developments among domestic leaders are understood as a message that candidate status can be obtained without fulfilling these conditions.

The conference also stressed the need to strengthen regional cooperation in order to build mutual trust and strengthen the civil society sector, which is a prerequisite for creating the preconditions that will enable a deep democratic transition. The tendency to violate media freedoms is present both in the countries waiting for accession and in the EU member states from the region, which requires a special approach in resistance to authoritarian tendencies.

Goran Svilanovic – former Minister of Foreign Affairs of FR Yugoslavia and former Secretary General of the Regional Cooperation Council, Kori Udovicki – former Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia and Chief Economist of the Center for Advanced Economic Studies in Belgrade spoke at the conference organized by TI BiH with the support of the Embassy of Sweden in BiH , Emir Đikić – CEFTA Director, Maja Sever – President of the European Federation of Journalists, Neven Anđelić – Professor Regent of the University of London, Katarina Peović – Member of the Croatian Parliament, Drago Kos – Chair of the OECD Anti-Corruption Working Group.