People from all over the world have evocative recollections of the nineties; the significant discoveries, scientific breakthroughs, prospering economies, the fall of several authoritarian regimes, the ‘90s popular culture – they all massively shaped and altered the humanity in its entirety. Yugoslavia, on the other hand, was destined to become the blemish on the pages of this glorious era for the mankind. The inter-ethnic tensions, which garnered international attention due to their nature, started to burst forth and almost always escalated into larger scale conflicts. Particular factions of people, deeply dissatisfied with their social statuses in the infamous federation, initiated revolutions that were built on plinths of bloodsheds. They then displayed the naïve elements of their personalities when they convinced themselves and others that the worst was left behind – but what was expecting them soon became their own worst nemesis.
Fast forward to the current times: we have witnessed the establishment of several succeeding countries of ex-Yugoslavia, so as to address the people’s burning desire for self-governance and this, in my opinion, was only a natural course of events. Nonetheless, the ethnic feuds that sprang up in the past are nowhere near to being reconciled due to reasons stemming from all facets of the story. Consequently, our whole region now finds itself in limbo and the frozen conflicts dictate many aspects of our lives. It almost seems as if all of us are now being punished, having to pay the price of freedom that we once craved for. This has, for quite some time, had many of us pondering whether we took the right approach towards liberty, or if we managed to institute sustainable democracies in our respective countries. Most importantly, we are forced to face the question whether our countries will ever reach a harmonious accord, thus embarking on a new epoch for Balkans, one that even the westerners passionately recommend as a result of their previous experiences in similar scenarios.
During the past decade, us people of Balkans have been repeatedly told that we may pave the way towards a common bright future only under the roof of the auspicious European Union. In this context, I firmly believe that the first and foremost benefit of the entry of Western Balkan countries into the EU would be the almost automatic unification of the countries, on the same levels, under the nourishing European aegis. Furthermore, future integration of Balkan countries in the EU, besides for helping solve cultural differences, would finally settle some disputes pertaining to finances and commerce. This would inevitably improve living circumstances and enable economies to flourish. Applying certain standards that would make our countries eligible for EU membership would also allow us to model after certain archetypes; nonetheless, we would still retain our unique characteristics and elements, therefore we would greatly – and positively – diversify the Union.
All of the people of Balkans are constantly touted the idea of a European Western Balkans and enthralled in the vast seas of opportunities that the EU can provide us with. The governments so stubbornly persevere with their modern propaganda aimed at convincing their citizens that they are very close to the European Union and we, showcasing our gullible human nature, praise them for their achievements in this field. What we fail to realize is that we are still burdened with a series of inherited issues which will eventually adjudicate our EU memberships and one of those is the regional reconciliation matter. While some governments have, either formally or sincerely, worked in the issue of inter-country reconciliation, we have not noticed many significant improvements and much is left to be desired.
Only a while ago, the Montenegrin foreign minister brought forth the concept of an alliance he called “Western Balkans Six”, which would incorporate the six remaining countries in Western Balkans not to have joined the EU. This would include an institutionalized cooperation between Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia in terms of a common parliament, police, education and healthcare system, labor market and joint efforts for EU integration. However, this proposal was received with mixed responses, some claiming it to be exceptionally promising and some others, including several experts and scholars, dubbing it the new Yugoslavia, certainly with a negative connotation to it.
The reluctance of the six countries, which are linked to each other with rather gloomy pasts, to cooperate on the abovementioned capacities may imply that they are still not prepared for the challenges that EU integration is going to impose on them. There are several other instances that argument the poor, thinly gilded ties of the countries in Balkans. The very daunting Serbia-Kosovo negotiations were recently very close to being abruptly stopped due to the Kosovar Prime Minister’s decision not to allow the Serbian politicians to enter Kosovo as part of a visit to the Serbian community, because of the proximity of local elections in the country. If it took that little to jeopardize the worth of a dialogue spanning over thirty months, there is not much to be anticipated from future negotiations. The EU political figures, however, have explicitly stressed out that we will only be eligible to enter the European family when we are capable of maintaining better relations, certainly much stronger than the ones we administer at the moment.
The good news is that foreign relations were, in several points of history, successfully improved; the Franco-German Friendship Treaty is the perfect embodiment in this sense. A lot more concerning than the improvement of foreign relations for the Balkans’ EU integration appear to be the countless of internal issues. Most of those pertain to ethnic tensions, which are more often than not triggered by the slightest incitements. For instance, Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is conducting the first post-war census, is struggling to prevent possible conflict outbursts that may be rekindled throughout the process. Similarly, ethnic Macedonians and Albanians find it more and more difficult to live together under the umbrella of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. They constantly seem to be indulging their chauvinistic egos with numerous statues they erect in their capital city, so as to show off their respective majestic histories not only to the world, but particularly to each other.
The ethnic disputes are certainly not the only matters that hold the Balkan countries away from entering the European Union in the near future. The Belgrade Gay Pride Parade was once again put on hold by the Serbian authorities due to the lack of safety for the supporters marching in the streets of the capital. LGBT rights are regrettably not the only human rights to be questioned in Balkans – a recent report of the European Parliament concluded that gender equality issues are still prevalent in the region, despite the up-to-date legislations. Overall, Human Rights Watch expressed concern for the human rights protection in Western Balkan countries and stated that the progress they have reached in this field fails to meet the region’s aspirations to join the EU.
Regardless of all the problems, either in foreign policy or internal affairs, the public opinion in Balkans towards the EU remains quite positive. Numerous polls conducted by international organisations have indicated that the majority of people in this region supports the membership of their county in the European Union and believes that it will ease many of their difficulties. I also have a similar stance: while the aforesaid issues, among others, will not magically vanish with the use of a magic wand – a European one, if you will – I still firmly believe that the eventual EU enlargement in Balkans will provide the future members with an abundance of benefits. Nonetheless, it will definitely not be a field of roses to the ‘holy grail’ and everyone’s input is expected. The integration process obviously has to be led by governments, but its strongest support should be granted by the people.
Being a youngster in the youngest country in Europe, I have committed myself to help Kosovo’s establishment in the region. Many of my peers unfortunately feel that a single person is not capable of making a change and therefore, they choose to distance themselves from any productive work of this nature; meanwhile, I have chosen a different approach. I am an advocate of regional reconciliation as means of escaping the current harmful deadlock, thus enabling our countries to push forward and reach certain benchmarks. This has motivated me to participate in a number of youth programmes whose main aims were to solve certain regional differences through the participants, but not only – events like these always pointed out the many similarities we share and brought us all incredibly close, thus starting treasured friendships.
There are surely myriads of other responsibilities that come with the mission of helping your country’s advancement in the international sphere, or so I have noticed. One of the most important, besides for ensuring a decent global representation, is the introduction of some new elements within the society itself. In other words, there are certain changes to be done within the country to improve its external reputation and I have tried to be as active as possible in this field. I have organized local activities and spread messages to promote peace. What is more, I assisted in the inception and realization of the idea of hosting a multinational event, which will bring together youngsters from backgrounds with traditionally poor ties. I have done this all with the ultimate goal of impacting the mindset and I am well aware of the fact that this requires time and effort. Still, my largest incentive remains the greater good; I make an effort for improving the reputation of Kosovo and Balkans because it will make its EU integration smoother. My contribution may be small, but it is still there.
To sum up, I strongly believe that it is to every regional country’s benefit to introduce or strengthen multilateral cooperation in every imaginable sphere of life. While the EU integration process is not all that promising at the moment, as proved by several instances I mentioned, it is fortunately ongoing and yielding (minor) results. The citizens, however, are also responsible to become actors throughout the process and should therefore engage in reconciliation matters, among others. Overall, my stance towards the future of Balkans would best be summarized by Ronald Reagan’s statement: “If we ever forget that we are one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.”
