Les Balkans et l’UE : circuit intégré

Infographie : F. Descheemaekere

The Balkans and the EU:  Integrated circuit

[The Economist]

EUROPEAN integration is still the central strategic goal of all Western Balkan countries. But Europe’s crisis has changed the political landscape. Until its onset several things were clear. For members of the European Union the point of bringing in the former Yugoslavs and Albania was to stabilise the region while for the Balkan countries the idea was to use the process to build modern and functional states. Now all bets are off. No one knows what the future holds because no one knows what the EU will look like in a year’s time let alone ten.

Vesna Pusić, Croatia’s foreign minister, says that when her country joins the EU in July next year it will have taken 12 years and four months of hard work to get there since the formal beginning of the process and that the EU that Croatia will join is not the same as it thought it was joining at the beginning. Behind Croatia, the remaining countries, Serbia, Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Albania and Bosnia are all at various stages along the path, but it will be years before the most advanced of them, currently Montenegro, will be ready to join. All this, and what it means, is discussed in an excellent paper by Dimitar Bechev, of the European Council on Foreign Relations.

Les économies des Balkans : la plupart du temps misérables

Infographie : François Descheemaekere

Balkan economies : Mostly Miserable

[The Economist]

IN the past decade or so Balkan pollsters have asked people in the region every single question imaginable. When they drew their conclusions they seem almost surprised by what they found, despite the fact that people consistently tell them exactly the same things. That is, that in general, and with the exception of Kosovars and Albanians who are generally younger and hence more optimistic, most people in the Balkans feel pretty miserable. They are concerned about jobs, health care, the education of their children and pensions. These material worries preoccupy them much more than ethnic grudges or the desire to reconquer territory they believe their nation has lost to a neighbour.  Most people have good reason to feel depressed about the economy.