Publications

This is the second in a series of reports which sets out to analyse the effects of the Corona crisis management on institutions, political and civil rights, parties, civil society, as well as external factors. While the governments have managed to prevent the healthcare systems from collapse, we can see a gradual relaxation of the measures affecting civil and political rights. The fight against the Corona pandemic is becoming more and more of a political battle demonstrating clearly the different strengths and weaknesses of the respective democracies.

The global COVID-19 pandemic will long be remembered as an inflection point in personal life as well as in global politics and history. While the full scope and depth of the crisis – in terms of public health but also economics and social politics in its entirety – cannot yet be fully predicted, its costs will be doubtlessly severe. But the world is being remade, we know that much.

A new, temporary refugee and migrant accommodation center, with the capacity to accommodate up to 3,000 people, will open in mid-April in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The center will be in the village of Lipa, 22 kilometers south-east of Bihać, in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina. The camp will be opened for habitation for migrants set up in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic and restrictive measures that have been in force in this country since the beginning of March, impacting alike BiH citizens, refugees and migrants who are already in this country. The current number of refugees and migrants in BiH is difficult to establish with any precision. However, some estimates put the number at in excess of 7,000 people.

The Western Balkans remain poorly connected in terms of infrastructure, with an atomized energy market, burdened with political instability, which negatively affects the region's energy security. External actors, most notably Russia and China, exploit the clientelist approach of political elites in the region thus opposing the implementation of the goals of the Energy Community in the Western Balkan countries.

When it comes to EU CFSP compliance, the percentage of Western Balkan countries' compliance with the High Representative's declarations and EU Council decisions varies, and comparative analysis shows that the level of compliance does not quite match the status of states in the EU accession process.

Greece has dealt competently with the public health risk posed by Covid-19 but faces a possibly even bigger challenge in mitigating the economic impact of the crisis. Greece had started to heal some of the wounds from its previous recession before the coronavirus struck. Now, its fragile economy is being buffeted by a new, and potentially severe, downturn. The public finances Athens has at its disposal are limited and the tools made available by the European Union only go some way towards providing solutions.

Leaders are invoking executive powers and are seizing a great deal of authority with scant resistance. We are witnessing a curtailing of civil and political rights on a massive scale, which is unprecedented in peacetime. While there was anger in the non-EU member states of the region about the EU’s restrictions on the export of medical equipment, China is using the pandemic to strengthen its ties by providing medical equipment and expertise. As the corona pandemic and responses to it in the region unfold, we will continue to monitor the development. This is the first in a series of reports which sets out to monitor effects of the corona crisis management on institutions, political and civil rights, parties, civil society, as well as…

The primary aim of this publication is to briefly discuss the current »normative marketplace« in the region. We want to draw contours of the current state of this marketplace and of those powers and actors that are challenging and endangering it. It is also our intention to engage in thinking about possible utopian horizons able to reclaim democracy, freedom, and emancipatory societal values. Of course, the »realist utopian horizon« deserved a sober acknowledgment of challenges faced by the European Union and its internal disputes, as well as the profound lack of strong socio-political forces in Southeast Europe that could be able to push for Europeanization as long desired, but never actually realized process.