How serious is it to join the Western Balkan countries with the EU? The topic of “EU Integration” is often instrumentalised by local elites to consolidate their own Power, writes Ivaylo Ditchev.
The enlargement of the EU is no longer what it used to be. Since it became clear that Turkey under Erdogan is welcome and that the EU-Integration of Ukraine to serious would result in tensions with Russia, the accession talks on the Western Balkans. Some politicians remind us of the regional “bad boys” of Bulgaria, Greece and Romania. Populists are in principle against EU membership of Muslim-majority countries such as Kosovo or Bosnia-Herzegovina. Others tend to forget the Balkan Region.
In addition to the often-debated enlargement fatigue of the EU, the question arises: How serious is this Region is it your desire to join the European Union?
A current example of the relations between Skopje and Sofia: The Bulgarian government presents itself as the advocate of the Western Balkans, but a little incident has brought the nationalist Vice-Premier of Bulgaria to threaten the North of Macedonia, with a Veto against its EU membership. The reason is that Skopje was not ready to acknowledge that the revolutionary Gotse Deltchev was Bulgarian. A joint Commission of the two countries is supposed to resolve such disputes, but this is playing for time and has digested after years of working only in the middle ages. Gotze Deltchev was born to ethnic Bulgarian and died as a Hero of the emerging Macedonian Nation, but the story plays a minor role.
Bilateral quarrels as stumbling blocks on the road to the EU
So what could be the stumbling block on the path of EU Integration? Not trade, not cross-border projects, not investment or security problems, but the question of who a historical figure is part of. And, although today there are not even a train service between the Bulgarian and the Northern Macedonian capital, between which there are only 245 miles!
While this scandal reminded the Bulgarian nationalists of the heroic Greeks who supposedly protected their national interests by forcing Skopje to change the name of the country of “Macedonia” in “Northern Macedonia”, and to waive any and all “claims” on the ancient. This conflict with symbolic character, the ausbremste the small former Yugoslav Republic of 27 years, on their way to international recognition, seems to have in the Region an example. The compromise in the name dispute has cost the Greek Syriza party of its majority. In the future it could come back to a symbolic radicalization of this question, if a right-wing government in Greece takes over the helm.
Local elites exploit the EU-Integration
Elsewhere, the problems are even greater. In Bosnia, the three ethnic groups (note mix .d. Red.: Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs), and even the teaching of history in schools is different. Another example is the difficult talks between Kosovo and Serbia, who came last year again Stalled after the murder of a Serbian politicians.
In the room of the EU, The Western Balkan countries
With all due respect for cultural specificities, the question of how these countries to introduce the European Union at all. Originally, the EU was a project of the border crossing and TRANS-national cooperation – first of all, in the economy, then in many other areas. In the Balkan Region it is Vice versa: Not quite legitimate local elites instrumentalize the EU Integration, in order to consolidate their own Power. The opposition between these elites was a way to compensate for the Lack of political programs and political strategies. In this Tradition, the EU does not begin Integration in the Balkans, by bringing coal and steel together, but by mimicking the “Top-Down” projects, the Europe of the States of the Region requires. The political leadership of the respective Balkan country has no interest in it, to dispense with national borders, on the contrary, The majority of companies in the Region are dependent on national support and a hidden protectionism. Basically, a few local companies in the Balkan Region are active, and Integration by Coca-Cola seems to be at least a questionable endeavor.
It is a paradox that former Eastern bloc countries such as Bulgaria and Romania already joined the EU in 2007, and the Western Balkan countries – successor States of the non-aligned Yugoslavia – not yet. A statement could be used, that the Romanian and Bulgarian elites are started with less legitimacy in the transformation process, and had to adjust – what are you already from the time of the Eastern bloc. The elites of the successor States of the former Yugoslavia seemed to have more self – and international Prestige consciousness, but to Get the led. Not symbolic, but real.
The Yugoslav spirit of openness to revive
The paradox, to use the EU Integration, in order to consolidate unstable nation-States, fits to an ethnically-founded Nations-a term that is widely used in South-East Europe. Expulsions and persecutions of other ethnic groups, similar to the “ethnic cleansing” that became a trademark of Slobodan Milosevic, there were also in the other countries of the Region, starting with the wars of liberation, as hundreds of thousands of Turks from their homes in Greece and Bulgaria were driven out. Similar phenomena are also on the side of the supposedly Good: as the Croats in the Region of Krajna cleaned with American help “”. And also in Kosovo, ethnic Serbs leave their home under the inattentive eyes of the EU.
Let us remember what happened after the Second world war in Czechoslovakia and Poland, millions of ethnic Germans were expelled. After most of the Jews from these countries were killed by the Nazis, began the post-war history of these two Eastern European countries with an almost unnatural ethnic homogeneity. Today’s hysterical reactions against refugees could be a consequence of this sense of ethnic “purity”. Behind it is the fear of the European project, through the ethnic lines of separation will disappear, and you accept the diversity of people.
The countries of the Western Balkans risk, the same old way, to return to as ethnicity leads to great passions, and strong leaders with authoritarian tendencies. To prevent this from happening, you would have to revive the Yugoslav spirit of openness and cultural diversity. Or – why not? – the post-war utopia of a Balkan Federation, which was quickly destroyed by Stalin.
Ivaylo Ditchev is Professor of cultural anthropology at the University of Sofia in Bulgaria. He has taught in Germany, France and the USA.