Publications

Both Europe-wide inequality and the at-risk-of-poverty rate again fell slightly from 2016 to 2017. This was largely due to the strong growth in the poorer new EU member states between the Baltic and the Balkans. In particular, the number of people below the poverty threshold of 60 per cent of European median income fell by several million. Inequality and the at-risk-of-poverty rate Europe-wide, however, remained well above the level in individual EU member states.

In the light of recent events, it is becoming clear that at present that basic deal for Western Balkan countries in the EU enlargement process— reform for membership — has collapsed. Some may argue that EU policy towards the region was never as transparent as all that, but whatever its details, even the broadest version of this bargain has now dissolved. Combined with the ongoing crisis of leadership in the U.S., and the growing political and economic clout of foreign powers like Russia, China, Turkey, and others, the contemporary Western Balkans find them-selves tossed about in the most tumultuous international waters since the end of the Yugoslav crisis.

The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) is publishing a fact sheet based on ground-breaking reports on the experiences and aspirations of youth in Southeast Europe, presenting youth demands for a decent future.

The 2018/2019 FES survey results confirm that young people in most countries of SEE share what has become an almost universal experience of young people everywhere: they are struggling to find quality jobs. This struggle may have dire consequences for a young person in various aspects of their lives. This political economy insecurity is one of the core elements shaping the attitudes and values of the SEE youth.

Young people’s increasing political and civic disengagement has been a consistent preoccupation of scholars and policy- makers over the past few decades due to its negative implications for the future of democratic citizenship and political systems. This policy paper offers main points on the attitudes of SEE youth on political and civic participation.

The issue of young people’s emigration from South-eastern Europe (SEE) has recently drawn considerable public and scholarly attention. Predominantly fuelled by economic uncertainty at home,

youth emigration has especially picked up the pace during the last ten years in the Western Balkans’ six (WB6) countries.

In February 2019, Macedonia received new name boards on its border crossings, and a new logo on the Government website. The country is now officially known as the Republic of North Macedonia. The process getting to the Prespa Agreement, which resulted in the name change, was wearisome, politically exhausting and at times highly controversial; but ultimately it was a process that proved successful, despite encountering opposition or even hostility on both sides. Could the Prespa Agreement be used as a blueprint for resolving other bilateral disputes in the region?

Critical of the status quo approach to enlargement, Florent Marciacq offers a strategic alternative by proposing “robust solidarity” as a new guiding principle that focuses on the EU’s foundational visions and values. Only with renewed attention to the EU’s founding principle of solidarity, he argues, can the resurfaced debate around “widening vs deepening” of the EU’s reach be overcome.