2020

COVID-19 AND SEE6 REFORMS:

how COVID-19 pandemic has tested the resilience of SEE6 institutions and the progress of reforms

EVENt Report

The COVID-19 pandemic has produced direct consequences on the economy, political context, social climate and overall welfare of WB6 citizens. The SEE region is projected to enter a recession in 2020, whose magnitude depends on the duration of the COVID-19 outbreak in Europe. The main risk is that a prolonged pandemic, as well as a deeper recession in the EU, could make the unfolding economic crisis difficult to handle.

The incandescent political situation in the Balkan countries and their weak institutional governance will act as magnifying factors. Moreover the pandemic caused delays in the implementation pace of engaged reforms. In some cases it provided the spark that enflamed the political conflict. In general the democratic legitimacy of SEE6 institutions has worsened.

This Event Report was prepared in the framework of the Webinar “COVID-19 AND SEE6 REFORMS | how COVID-19 pandemic has tested the resilience of SEE6 institutions and the progress of reforms”, supported by Hanns Seidel Stiftung.

Tags:  SEE6, European Union, Enlargement, Covid19, Reforms

2021

Western Balkans’ Plight

is Wake-up Call for Europe

Op-ed

The next few years will be decisive for the democratic and European future of the Western Balkans. In addition to a credible enlargement perspective and a positive enlargement narrative, which needs to be reinvented and reinvigorated, it is vital to support rule of law, civil dialogue, pluralism and the fight against corruption as well as the social dimension. It is crucial to invest more in social inclusion, to support the broad vision of just and democratic societies, which needs to include various bottom-up initiatives and actors. This Op-ed is prepared and published in the framework of the project “Europeanisation meets democracy from below: The Western Balkans Europeanisation meets democracy on the search for new European and democratic Momentum (WB2EU)” co-funded by the European Commission under its Erasmus+ Jean Monnet programme.

Our “WB2EU network” will activate, connect, research, disseminate and create joint output on the defined topics by bringing together academia, civil society and relevant stakeholders on national, regional and EU level. The project is led by the Austrian Society for European Politics (ÖGfE) and includes 16 renowned think-tanks, do-tanks, higher education institutes and policy centres from the European countries that will be most decisive for the enlargement process in the upcoming years.

For more information about this project, please visit the project website: https://www.wb2eu.eu/.

*This op-ed has been also published at Balkan Insight (https://balkaninsight.com/?p=961993) and Der Standard (https://www.derstandard.at/story/2000125235467).

Tags: EU accession , Enlargement, Rule of Law, Western Balkans, SEE6

2021

CONNECTIVITY AND CONVERGENCE IN SEE6:
A Blueprint for an EU Membership-Based Development Model

Report

In October 2019, the 5^th Tirana Connectivity Forum ended with a roundtable where a dozen participants gathered to discuss what we had learned from two intensive days of talk. The debate focused on connectivity’s contribution to SEE6 growth and on the hindering factors. Infrastructure financing, quality of institutional framework, political will, short-term vs. long-term perspective and availability of human resources were among the factors identified as conditioning the impact of connectivity on growth.

The creation of a methodological framework that links the local infrastructure, domestic institutions and the people, allows us to understand the dynamics and complexity of sustainable and resilient development paths, as well as identifying entry points for SEE6 and EU policy-makers.

While studying the interaction between connectivity and the development of a territory, three systemic elements appear. First is “space”, as defined by the endowment of the territory in production capability and in connective infrastructure (transport, energy and data). Second is the local “institutions” which in a simplified definition would be the “structures and mechanisms of social order and cooperation governing the behavior of a set of individuals” materialized in the array of both public and privately owned organizations. The third element is the local “people”. As workforce they are a key factor to growth while as citizens they keep local institutions accountable and efficient.

In a schematic presentation we group those three elements in a triangle where space, people and institutions permanently interact and impact each other. In the next challenge we try to identify actions that induce a “Pareto improvement” in the space-institutions-people system in the long term: i.e., a positive improvement in one node without negatively impacting the rest of the triangle. In this picture, we also bring in “other triangles” in the form of third actors such as China, Russia or Turkey to illustrate other forms of interaction and impact with SEE6 space, people and institutions.

By deconstructing space, people and institutions in the SEE6 and putting them in one system, we underline their inherent interconnectedness. By analyzing their links and the multitude of actors involved, we shed light on the complexity of each decision-making process aiming to impact them. By bringing in an analysis of availability and suitability of resources we point out the efficiency and sustainability of any change dynamics.

Our aim is to argue that to be sustainable, virtuous and resilient, the development scenario chosen to sustain the convergence dynamic towards the EU must happen in all three nodes of the SEE6 triangle.

Tags: Berlin Process, Connectivity, Convergence, Tirana Connectivity Forum, Good governance, SEE6, EU Membership, Development.