The Stability Pact – the prospects and perils of regional economic co-operation
The Stability Pact – the prospects and perils of regional economic co-operation

Summary/Abstract: The author comments the statement of Carl Bildt, the UN Special Envoy to the Balkans, expressed among others at the Davos ‘Balkans Summit’. Bildt does call for the accession of Balkan countries into the ‘European club’ as the best possible solution, but his vision of the process of rapprochement in practice is slightly different to those of the countries involved in it. That is, he is of the opinion that this goal is far, far away for most of the countries ‘south of Slovenia and north of Greece’. Such an opinion is substantiated by inefficient state administrations in most of these countries, the unfortunate legacy of their socialist economies, inadequate legal security and objectively-existing political conflicts. In order to turn the Balkans ‘away from its Balkanisation in the past towards its Europeanisation in the future’, Bildt proposes the formation of a free trade zone and a customs union. Croatia has reiterated its disapproval of various models of such ‘Balkans mini-European Unions’, insisting upon its way towards Europe through joint co-operation, but with each country moving on its own, i.e. in the form of a regatta in which the winners are the ones which are the best prepared, and not as in a convoy in which the pace of movement is set by the slowest.

• Details
• Contents