Towards a Sustainable Growth Policy in Southeast Europe

The crisis has further deepened the deficits and caused even more problems, especially an increase of public debt and deficit. It is not likely that the countries of the region will be able to solve their economic problems and foster economic development by pursuing conventional economic policies as before the crisis alone.

As a cooperation among several national offices and Dialogue Southeast Europe and coordinated by FES Zagreb, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung initiated a process of reflection among leading economic experts from (Southeast) Europe already in 2015. This exchange was meant to focus on one key question: "Why has the political economy agenda that many countries in Southeast Europe have adopted in order to comply with financial assistance and/or as part of EU-accession requirements either manifestly underperformed or even failed to deliver tangible results?"

The comparative project has been based on a set of international conferences in Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia. The objective has been to attract the interest of policymakers and their advisors, researchers and practitioners. Together, we have sought to engage in discussions about the merits of formulating an economic agenda that can shift the goal posts from recession to sustainable recovery and coherent reform.

In-depth country analyses and studies have been prepared and recommendations for each respective country, as well as for the region as a whole, have been formulated and discussed. These papers provide insights and ideas for a more socially just and sustainable economic policy in Southeast Europe. With public events in Skopje, Ljubljana and Bucharest, we have been able to reach out to policymakers on the on the government level, labor union leaders and economic experts around the region.

The comparative findings will be presented for the first time in their entirety at a regional launch <link news-list e a-new-economic-agenda-for-southeast-europe external-link>conference in Belgrade in September.