Think Tanks from Southeastern Europe visit Brussels
The visit to Brussels took place within the framework of the 2013 TRAIN Programme (Think Tanks Providing Research and Advice through Interaction and Networking), which aims to foster policy dialogue between think tanks and policy makers at the national as well as at the European level. In meetings with representatives of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Enlargement and members of the Western Balkans Working Group of the European Parliament, the think tanks presented their policy papers on different questions surrounding the EU integration of their countries. In their policy research, the participants of the 2013 TRAIN Programme address the issue of media ownership in Croatia; the misuse of public funds and offices in the Montenegrin electoral system; regional development through inter-municipal cooperation in Albania; cooperation between the government and civil society in Macedonia; the impact of the EU-facilitated dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo on freedom of movement and trade; and ethnic-based segregation in public schools in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia.
In addition to pointing to the particular challenges related to their research areas, the visit to Brussels also offered participants an opportunity to discuss the state of the EU’s current enlargement policy toward the region. The recent innovations in the enlargement process, which place the rule of law at the heart of accession negotiations, can be clearly felt by Montenegro, which is currently the only country in the Western Balkans that has opened membership talks with the EU. Receiving the group at the Mission of Montenegro to the European Union, Ambassador Ivan Lekovic shared his first-hand experience in this initial phase of accession negotiations and described how the country is coping with a process that is becoming more and more complex and demanding as Montenegro advances on its EU path.
Visits to the Permanent Representation of Germany to the European Union and to the Council Secretariat provided participants with a perspective from the other side of the negotiation table. They shed light on the ways member states find compromises, forge alliances, try to make their voices heard, and finally take decisions in the field of EU enlargement policy.
A debate with Brussels-based representatives from the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), the European Policy Center (EPC), and the European Stability Initiative (ESI) highlighted the challenges and difficulties the enlargement project is currently facing. The European Union has become much more inward-looking since the enlargement toward Central and Eastern Europe a decade ago. As the EU and its member states are preoccupied with the crisis in the eurozone and its effects, foreign policy issues are not high on the agenda. At the same time, there is also disillusionment with EU integration in the (potential) candidate countries, as the expected benefits have yet to arrive. For many citizens in Southeastern Europe, the progressive EU integration of their countries has not been accompanied by growing economic prosperity. And while several countries have been visibly advancing on their path toward EU membership – as demonstrated by Croatia’s accession, the opening of membership talks with Montenegro, and the recent successes in the Serbia-Kosovo dialogue – the gap is widening with countries whose accession process remains blocked due to domestic problems or open bilateral issues. While such matters cannot be solved overnight, it was stressed that it is thus all the more important to keep the process going and create further incentives for reform.
Sponsored by the German Foreign Office (Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe), the 2013 TRAIN Programme accompanied eight think tanks from Albania, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia in the development of their policy research on topics relevant for their countries’ integration into the EU. Following their meeting in Brussels, the participating think tanks will seek a dialogue with policy makers and the public in their respective countries to present the outcomes of their research.
