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"The Enlargement of the EU to Balkans" – Policy Reports that shaped the policies and debate on European integration of Balkans

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): English

Today, western Balkans states are a long way from where they were at the beginning of the decade. The Stabilization and Association process, which has just started in 2000, is almost completed as all the states have negotiated and signed the Stabilization and Association Agreements with the EU, the EU is negotiating visa liberalization agreements and all states are entitled to the new pre-accession financial assistance IPA, designed to address the strategic needs of the region. This progress, apart from the persistent efforts of the national governments and the EU administration, is also partly due to the visionary policy reports and recommendations of people and organizations working on the Balkans. We are convinced that their commitment to the region and the ability to look beyond the limitations of the immediate political context for lasting solutions makes them an irreplaceable item on every reading-list of both those who wish to study the Balkan region and those who aim to produce similar such reports addressing the present dilemmas and challenges for the western Balkan states. “The Enlargement of the EU to Balkans” is a compilation of four reports on the Balkans published since 2000. They all concern the Balkan region and its prospects for the future – away from violent legacies towards peace, stability and European integration. As such, they are a valuable source for all those interested in and studying the recent political developments in this region, for these reports give an overview of the challenges that Balkans states faced on the start of their journey to European integration. We hope this collection of reports will become part of the curricula of schools and departments where Balkan politics, history and EU integration are taught. From the multitude of reports, books and other works written on the Balkans, the reports that follow were not chosen accidentally. Rather, we aimed to include the most influential reports, those which had the greatest impact on the EU and international community’s approach towards the Balkans, those with the most valuable recommendations concerning the features of EU’s policy towards the Balkans. The results of in-depth field research and analysis of diplomatic relations in the region, these reports provided the most credible assistance to the European and other policy-makers when faced with the dilemma ‘how to deal with postconflict post-Milosevic Balkans?’ By publishing their reports again, we also like to pay tribute to those people and organizations that made their most for Balkans to be found in EU integration map.

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A NATO Solution for Macedonia

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): English

Macedonia hopes to get an invitation to join the NATO alliance, along with Croatia and Albania, at next month's NATO Summit in Bucharest. However, the prospects of Macedonia to be invited to NATO membership when the NATO allies meet on 2-4 April 2008, is in a state of impasse, with Greece having made it clear that it would veto in the NATO summit any decision for inviting Macedonia to join the Alliance, unless Macedonia and Greece would agree on the name dispute, which under current circumstances will be difficult to happen. Macedonia’s name, the Greeks say, implies territorial aspirations on their own northern province, also called Macedonia.

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Action Memo – Final Document of the Young Faces Network Programme 2010 Organized by the Geneva Centre for Democratic Control of the Armed Forces (DCAF)

Author(s): Sonja Zuber / Language(s): English

With the Lisbon Treaty, new challenges have been raised for the national parliaments when it comes to the oversight of the CSDP. Macedonia as a candidate member state must follow the activities in Brussels closely regarding these issues, as alignment to the regulations from the Lisbon treaty should be of a highest priority. This review has brought to light several issues that the committee and Parliament face in the decision-making process regarding sending troops in missions under the CSDP. This memo provides brief description of the cooperation between Macedonia and EU regarding CSDP, identifies the main shortcomings and puts forward several propositions for ensuring close and successful relations between Republic of Macedonia and the EU regarding CSDP. Those propositions are: forming a joint body with the Government and the Ministry of Defence specifically for peace missions and sending troops abroad; propose amendments to the current Law on Defence and institutionalise the process of cooperation with other defence parliamentary committees from the region.

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Composting in Macedonia – Sound Alternative or Just a Rotten Idea?

Author(s): Karolina Pendovska / Language(s): English

In the European Union (EU) with 497 million inhabitants, biowaste accounts for 30-45% of the municipal solid waste (MSW). While in Macedonia, a country with only two million inhabitants has biowaste percentages near the percentage of the EU - 26.2%. In Macedonia biowaste includes waste materials with organic (animal and vegetal) origin, like household waste, then restaurants, canteens food waste and green markets waste, as well as in the rural municipalities, agricultural wastes, wastes from livestock activities, gardening wastes and forest residues. Due to the high water content, high density (except for green waste which has low density) and the high putrescibility of this waste stream, it is crucial to be involved in integrated, sustainable waste management. The MSW and its biowaste stream produced in Macedonia is landfilled (at official landfills) and dumped at thousands of illegal dumpsites. Furthermore, there is no separate collection of biowastes, only separate collection of paper as biowaste is realized by the communal enterprises. Additionally, the rural communities with main agricultural activities do not have official waste collection systems. The treatment of the agriculture wastes depend solely on the treatment practices of the farms. Because the agriculture sector in Macedonia lacks the Good Farming Practice (GFP), non compliance to basic technical and environmental requirements is often the case with the macedonian farms. This leads to pollution of soils, water courses and emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) on the long run.

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Education Outcomes from Migration and Remittances in Albania and Macedonia

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): English

This study looks at the impact of migration and remittances on the educational outcomes of the children left behind. The paper analyses this impact by examining the cases of Albania and Macedonia, countries that have experienced substantial outward migration. The paper tests the hypothesis of whether migration and remittances have a positive effect on the children's education. To test this hypothesis and the mechanism by which migration and remittances affect children’s schooling, empirical specifications were used, including a fixed effect model and an ordered probit model, which analysed the effect of parental remittances and migration experience on the educational level of children generally and for girls’ and boys’ education levels separately. The study uses the most recent empirical surveys conducted in Albania and Macedonia that gathered information on the socio-demographic characteristics of children, migration by household members, household income and expenditures, as well as remittances and their allocation to household consumption. The paper shows that parental experiences of migration have an important effect on the educational attainment of children in both Albania and Macedonia, whereas remittances only have a significant effect on the education status of children in Albania. The results of this study demonstrate that, in the case of Albania, having a migrant parent and remittances more positively affect the education of girls than of boys. This difference in the case of Macedonia is insignificant. The main message for policy makers is that providing a more gender balanced education supply would reduce gender inequalities in terms of years of schooling and educational attainment.

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Employment: Progress with EU Approximation in Macedonia

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): English

This report focuses on two aspects of EU approximation in the area of employment: the first section identifies the key reasons behind the problems encountered with approximation to EU standards in this field, while the following section looks into potential measures and policy solutions that can be undertaken in order to achieve greater progress with EU approximation. The ultimate aim is to get a sense of progress achieved in the area as a case for evaluating the country’s achievements in EU approximation. Considering recent debates about Macedonian progress towards EU integration acquired an emotional overtone as the ‘name dispute’ with Greece became more heated since the beginning of this year. In this light, this is also an effort to bring the debate back to rational and pragmatic terms and assess the effects that government measures have on the lives of ordinary citizens.

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Ending 'Ghettoisation' of the Western Balkans – Visa Liberalisation Prospects

Author(s): Biljana Kotevska / Language(s): English

Ever since the European Commission [EC] handed over the Roadmap for Visa Free Travel to the Macedonian government in May 2008, visa liberalisation has been the topic of the year. There hasn't been a speech delivered by government officials, an issue of a newspaper or an event on integration held without mentioning the issue of visa liberalisation. Many reports have been written. Many researches as well as research projects have been conducted, assessing the process of visa facilitation, reviewing the fulfilment of the criteria set in the roadmap or evaluating the prospects for visa liberalisation for the near future. After so many writings on this process, a vast media coverage as well as political exploitation of the topic, what this report aims to do is to present a compact picture on the whole process up to date. It will start by presenting an overview of events preceding the visa liberalisation negotiations, through a short history of travelling for the citizens of the Western Balkans, and presenting what was to follow in the form of Visa Facilitation Agreements and their implementation. This will be followed by an intro on the visa liberalisation process and an overview of the current progress of Macedonia against the Roadmap benchmarks. Next, a brief explanation on how will the decision on visa liberalisation be made, as well as the "what ifs?” on a positive and on a negative opinion of the EC on Macedonia's progress on the visa issue. It will wrap up with recommendations on how to further progress with this process.

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EU Approximation in Macedonia: Progress in Science and Research and Information Society

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): English

The purpose of this report is to critically examine and evaluate the progress Macedonia makes in EU approximation. Considering EU approximation is a rather extensive process, this report is focused on two related areas of approximation: Science and Research (S&R) and Information Society (IS), two of the acquis chapters. Bearing in mind the double reason for approximation in research and information society, this report investigates the progress Macedonia achieved in adopting and approximating its policies and legislation to EU standards in these areas. To this end, this report maps the progress achieved with adopting the Acquis and implementing European Commission recommendations in areas Science & Research and Information Society. Building on the research conducted, the report investigates the level and pace of approximation efforts of the Macedonian government, identifies some problematic areas and suggests some improvements, without claiming to offer an action plan or strategy for better EU approximation in the two chosen areas. The findings are based on analysis of Macedonian legislation, reports and analyses of the EU as well as elite interviews with members of relevant government institutions in Macedonia in the period between June and August 2007.

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Evaluation of Public Administration Reforms in Macedonia

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): English

Public Administration Reforms (PAR) is a very popular topic of discussion among the politicians and political analysts, the ordinary people as well as the academic (research) community in South Eastern Europe (SEE). Politicians talk about (advertise) PAR in their electoral campaigns, international (external) political actors donate funds, evaluate the progress with PAR and publish relevant reports, academics analyze the effects and advocate further efforts, while the media keep the issue in the spotlight. PAR has become the latest buzz-word in SEE politics, superseding earlier such concepts like market-reforms, human and minority rights, etc. If anything, public administration reforms are not an area suffering from lack of attention.

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Four Years from the Candidacy Status: what has been done and what can be expected?

Author(s): Sonja Risteska / Language(s): English

Much has been said and done in the past four years since Macedonia became a candidate country for the EU. As the date for publishing this year’s EC Report approaches, the questions of whether this year will be ‘the’ year for getting the much aspired date for starting the negotiations for full membership occupy public discussions. To find a quick answer to these questions seems a rather difficult task. Problems stem not just from domestic concerns, as complex and challenging they are, but also from the confusion over Europe’s future within Europe’s capitals and in Brussels. The path that Macedonia has to walk to get to the much wanted ‘destination’ – Brussels, is particularly difficult and full with bumps. From domestic issues and set benchmarks through disputes with its neighbors, Macedonia also has to find a way to ‘win’ Europe in spite of the global economic crisis and the unfinished ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. It seems as mission impossible when combined altogether, albeit it could be accomplished.

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Gas Pipelines and Regional Challenges: Assessment of the Macedonian Role in the SEE Natural Gas Market

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): English

Today, we live in an “era of energy” when most of the political debates are directed towards ensuring the availability and security of supply of energy. Across the world, the countries are caught in the grip with the raising energy demand and prices. On the European continent the energy crisis and debate over energy security and sustainability are concentrated on two issues: the high dependence on energy import and the increasing need for diversification of the energy sources. The current debate is all about the geopolitics of supply of the natural gas, as leading energy source and the pillar of the energy stability in the continent. A decade ago, the European Commission has adopted several important documents concerning measures that safeguard the security of natural gas supply and regulate the internal natural gas market. The most recent one, the Energy Policy of EU from 2007 has projected that even with the current targets on energy efficiency and renewables, oil and natural gas will still continue to meet half of the EU’s energy needs, with the import of natural gas exceeding 80% by 2030. Moreover, taking into consideration that the electricity generation in EU remains heavily dependent on natural gas, the 2007 Energy Policy reaffirms the security of supply of natural gas as a paramount for Europe’s security and economy. The other important part of the EU energy strategy concerning natural gas is the diversification of its energy sources. In order to diminish the role and the political influence of Russia as the biggest supplier of Europe with natural gas, EU has turned to find new sources and best transit routes to transport the natural gas to Europe, at the same time avoiding Russian territory.

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Greening the Energy Sector-Does Macedonia Need Nuclear Energy?

Author(s): Sonja Risteska / Language(s): English

The construction of viable energy options for the next decades is at the centre of significant period in the national discussions in Macedonia. This was triggered in part by the adoption of the Energy Strategy for the period of 2008-2020 with a vision up until 2030. One of the options mentioned is nuclear energy and the possibility of building a nuclear power plant in the country. This option deserves to be adequately and properly analyzed and researched in the following years, as do other alternatives, RES, gas, coal. However, unlike the other energy options, nuclear energy causes lot of stir in the public and expert circles. Whether it is potentially hazardous or is a great investment option is still a big issue that necessitates closer inspection. This brief therefore tries to look at both sides of the discussion while also recommending several future steps regarding the exploration of nuclear energy in Macedonia to the relevant stakeholders. The brief represents a starting point in what should follow a comprehensive research on the benefits and risks that the nuclear option has, not only for Macedonia but for the wider region in general. The research methodology is qualitative, using primary sources, such as interviews and legal documents, as well as secondary sources, such as analysis of documents of the contemporary energy discourse.

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How Far is Macedonia in Fulfilling the Requirements Under the Energy Chapter of the Acquis?

Author(s): Sonja Risteska,Nataša Hroneska / Language(s): English

Macedonia’s progress under Chapter 15 of the EU Acquis - Energy has been somewhat inconsistent over the past few years. The reforms of the energy sector are high on the Macedonian government’s agenda although their implementation started only in 2005/2006, in particular with the entering into force of the Energy Community Treaty for Southeast Europe (ECTSEE) in 2005. According to the ECTSEE’s rules member countries have to align their legislation in energy with the EU’s regulations. Therefore the reform process that started in Macedonia in 2005 has been partly successful, but it is ongoing process will most likely accelerate in the following years. The possibilities of having sustainable energy production from other alternative energy sources, such as hydro, wind, biomass or solar energy, which have a high potential for exploitation and energy production, are still there, ready to be explored. This report will investigate the positive developments and setbacks of the reforms in the energy sector in Macedonia since 2005. It will serve as a guide into what has been done so far, in which areas progress has been slower or reversed, which areas have great potential for development and what lies ahead in the development of the country’s energy market.

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How to Achieve Quality Higher Education in Macedonia. Screening of the Reforms in the Higher Education Sector in Republic of Macedonia

Author(s): Katarina Kreceva / Language(s): English

The Higher Education (HE) system is created to enhance the production and dissemination of knowledge, and nowadays above all, to get a hold on the new consumer good - information. Hence, latest transformations made the role of education in the overall development of societies explicitly applicable, changing the goal of knowledge from search for the truth to search for ways of augmenting power, becoming increasingly adjusted to national requirements. Contesting globalization, no country is excluded from the politico-economic trends currently transforming higher educational institutions. On the European continent this trend is unequivocally defined by aiming to establish a common European Higher Education Area, development depicted by the Bologna process and most recently by the Lisbon objectives. Republic of Macedonia as a candidate EU country is adjunct to this international agenda, additionally having national interests in implementing such objectives in context of fitting the European socio-cultural milieu.

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Human Resources Management and Practices in Macedonian Civil Service

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): English

The following pages offer a brief evaluation of human resources management practices in the Macedonian civil service. Based on series of interviews with Human Resources experts, from academia and the administration, we outline the advantages and disadvantages of the current human resources system in the public administration. We then proceed with a summary of the assessment of human resources practices as implemented in some of the Macedonian public institutions, to sum up with several recommendations about how to improve the work and results of human resources units in the civil service in Macedonia.

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Impact of Migration on Child Growth in Albania and Macedonia

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): English

Albania and Macedonia are two Western Balkan countries that are characterised by high emigration and remittance dependency rates that appear to have affected the development of these countries across different socio-economic and cultural dimensions. Child growth in particular is one of these important outcomes. This paper uses a survey administered to mothers in Albania and Macedonia to investigate whether migration and remittances have had any impact on child growth in these countries. Child growth indicators, such as body mass index, weight, height, stunting and obesity dummies, together with child health inputs, such as the frequency of visiting the doctor, chronic diseases and reasons for not going to the doctor, are used as left-hand side variables. The paper finds that while migration has led to less stunting and increased height in Albania, in Macedonia, it seems to have led to increased weight and body mass index values and more obesity. These findings imply that exposure to international migration can have different consequences for these countries as Albania appears to have realised improvements in height and stature, while Macedonia has suffered from increased weight associated with increases in obesity.

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Implementing Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Measures – are Southeast European Countries on track? Barriers, Positive Examples, Proposed Measures and Policies

Author(s): Sonja Risteska,Nataša Hroneska / Language(s): English

Energy efficiency (EE) is a vital part of every country’s energy policy. All countries strive to establish an energy system that will enable balanced development of environmental protection, the competitiveness of the market and the security of energy supply. But the uncertain global energy market and the poor use of indigenous energy resources make it difficult to build a sustainable energy system in Macedonia. Remaining highly dependent on energy, without proper implementation of energy efficiency, the overall success of energy development is at stake. Macedonia as a country member of the Energy Community and a candidate for EU membership needs to keep up the pace with the other countries of South Eastern Europe when it comes to reforms of the energy sector. However, implementation of reforms is one of the main problems in Macedonia. According to a study conducted by Analytica in February, Macedonia is seriously lagging behind in the implementation of reforms in the energy sector, including the implementation of energy efficiency measures at the national and local levels.

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Introducing Career-Based System in Civil Service

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): English

The latest European Commission Progress Report on Macedonia, once again pointed out the importance of pursuing thorough public administration reforms in the country. The EC explicitly demands that before starting accession negotiations, Macedonia should intensively pursue public administration reforms with the focus on de-politicization of recruitment and advancement in the civil service. Evidently, this progress report raises some critical issues concerning Macedonia’s public administration (PA) which was not the case in previous reports. Inefficiency, corruption and politicization of PA have been identified as obstacles of overall quality of reforms. Because of this, many believed that reforms in PA shall continue with a fresh enthusiasm and tackle the deep-rooted malformations of the system and head for fundamental systematic change. Understandably, actions aimed for systematic change require decisiveness and sometimes even controversial overhaul of the civil service that suppose to determine its new image. New policy discussion for changes in the Law on Civil Servants aimed at replacing the “position based” with “career based” civil service system is contributing in achieving the fundamental systematic change in the civil service. Although the policy discussion has been on agenda for some time, we suggest that career based approach should be discussed further, and once a new momentum is established conducive for needed reform, the issue is pursued and finalised by the governing authorities.

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Investments in Energy – The Macedonian Case

Author(s): Nataša Hroneska / Language(s): English

Since independence at the beginning of 1990s and especially in the last several years, the most important issue to the development of the energy sector in Macedonia has been the lack of a substantial and sustainable investment model. This in turn has been reflected in the modest number of new energy capacities in the country. Most of Macedonia’s existing energy infrastructure was developed during the second half of the last century. The consequence of this investment stagnation, especially after the breakout from Yugoslavia, is a weak energy sector, overwhelmingly dependent on imports and uncompetitive in the regional energy market. Foreign investors come and go from the country. Facing different legal and administrative barriers few decide to invest, leaving many strategically important energy projects for Macedonia to wait for ‘better days’. In addition, both wholesale and individual consumers have experienced hardships in their businesses and everyday life, faced with poor energy supply, low quality transmission and distribution systems, combined with energy shortages and inefficient energy management. New capacities have been developed in the last two decades, but they are not enough to satisfy the increase in energy demand, or strengthen the energy position of Macedonia within Southeast European region.

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Is Macedonia Ready to Start Negotiations for EU Membership Regarding Chapter 27?

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): English

Macedonia as Western Balkan country is a challenging “bite” for the European Union (EU). This policy brief examines the integration efforts of Macedonia in the sphere of environment. Our aim is to bring different perspective in the public perceptions of the Chapter 27 as part of the EU integration processes. In times of global recession, environmental policy is often neglected as it is seen as a big spender of budget resources. Therefore, this paper aims to bring environment to the fore and focus public attention on Macedonia’s performance in the environmental sector, because of its noted substantial changes and progress. By doing this, we propose to propel a brighter view of both the state of the Macedonian environment and the progress with EU approximation. Through a comparative analysis, the brief also lays out the challenges and obstacles of the reform process in the environmental protection of the pre‐accession period of Slovakia and Croatia. As a new EU member state Slovakia was chosen in order to better identify the ways the country has dealt with the environmental barriers on the way to integration with the EU. Croatia is a current candidate state and as such shares many of the challenges Macedonia faces in the are of environment acquis approximation. Having advanced further on the road to EU membership, Croatia is a useful model for Macedonia.

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Series:ANALYTICA - Thinking Laboratory