Publisher: Аналитика Тинк-тенк Организација

"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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A threshold for European aspirations. NATO membership. 2008.

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

At a meeting with NATO Secretary General, Mr. Jaap D.H. Scheffer, former Macedonian Prime Minister, Vlado Buckovski, talking about the NATO demands for 110% fair elections in Macedonia, said: “Secretary General, you're asking for miracles. But I accept the miracle.”. This is a regular political joke, especially since the elections of July 2006 were not exactly “110% fair”. Yet, this statement is also indicative from another perspective – it speaks about the political discourse in Macedonia, how things are perceived, referred to and understood. Thus, it seems rather ironic, if unsurprising, that the Macedonian discourse about NATO should revolve around ‘miracles’ – demanding or accepting them. NATO officials have continually emphasized the ‘rational’ nature of NATO, its enlargement and the criteria for enlargement. There should be nothing miraculous about them! When a state is ready, when all necessary reforms and preparations in the defense and political sectors have been completed, it receives an invitation for NATO membership. In the meantime, NATO evaluates the progress of reforms and provides guidelines and recommendations. It is as simple as that.

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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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Analysis of the National Policies and Practices Dealing with Illegal Migration and Asylum Seekers

Author(s): Magdalena Lembovska / Language(s): English

The past decade has seen rapid changes in the migration flows in, from and through the countries of the Western Balkans. Regular migration is very important for the country’s socio-economic and demographic development; however, irregular migration also deserves special attention by the competent authorities. It is an issue of both state security and human security and is usually connected with serious and organized crime and the infringement of human rights. Following visa liberalization for the Western Balkans counties, the region is usually seen as the origin of illegal migration into the European Union. During the last few years all eyes were focused on asylum seekers from the Western Balkans countries. However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the fact that the region is also a transit area for migrants towards the EU. So far there has been little discussion about this phenomenon among researchers and policy makers, although the national and regional media are becoming more interested in the issue, bringing it closer to citizens.

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Analytical

Frequency: 2 issues / Country: North Macedonia

Analytical is a journal published by Analytica, which is focused on studying and analyzing the recent and ongoing socio-political and economic developments in the Western Balkans and the wider region. The journal includes contributions - articles, opinions, comments - that approach the subject area - countries of the Western Balkans - from various perspectives: political, IR, economic, historical, sociological, educational, etc. Analytical is electronic journal published twice a year by Analytica, think-tank, Skopje Macedonia. Submissions are invited twice a year trough open Calls for Papers. Editorial Committee Mr.Sani Demiri - President Ms.Cvete Koneska Ms.Natasha Hroneska

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Assessing the Oversight Mechanisms of the POLICE FORCES IN MACEDONIA

Author(s): Kaltrina Selimi / Language(s): English

Macedonia is an attention grabbing case for analyzing how a state’s security sector has evolved, and whether it has succeeded in embracing democratic practices or not. Macedonia’s peaceful exit from communist Yugoslavia in the 1990s, its experiences during and after the Internal Armed Conflict in 2001, and its efforts to join the EU and NATO make its recent history ripe for such analysis. The aim of this policy brief is to describe the existing oversight mechanisms of the Macedonian police forces - whether they succeed at implementing proper control of the police forces and the use of force continuum, and what kind of challenges they encounter at their work.

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Civilian Capacities for Peace Operations. Case Study – Finland

Author(s): Andreja Bogdanovski / Language(s): English

This policy paper examines the Finnish experience regarding the civilian capacities for peace operations. As such, it illustrates how this segment of Finland’s foreign policy has been developing over the years and it went through several transformations by way of its own internal reform processes. It begins by looking at the wider context in which the model operates because of Finland’s membership in the European Union and its substantial involvement and interaction with other regional organisations such as the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the UN. The text continues by describing Finland’s institutional arrangements for sending civilian capacities abroad, by explaining the main state structures in charge of the implementation of the policy (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Interior and the Crisis Management Centre). The policy paper concludes with an analysis of the legal backbone of Finland’s civilian participation in, and contribution to, peace operations.

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Comparative Analysis of Regional Practices for Parliamentary Financial Oversight of Intelligence Services

Author(s): Magdalena Lembovska / Language(s): English

This paper will give an account of the mechanisms available to the Macedonian Parliament to conduct parliamentary oversight of the intelligence services, particularly those within the jurisdiction of the specialized parliamentary committees. It will then examine cases from other states in the region and look for practices and legal solutions that they have established in order to encourage financial accountability of their intelligence services. As former Yugoslav republics, during the last two decades these states were facing the challenges of transition and building democratic, transparent and accountable institutions. However, not all of them have progressed at the same pace. The best practices are elaborated in two case-studies – Slovenia and Croatia, both members of the European Union. Furthermore, their oversight systems differ at many levels, having been created and developed according to each country’s specific processes and needs. They should serve as examples to better understand the role of parliaments in ensuring the accountability of intelligence services in the implementation of programs and projects financed with state money. Thereby, the case-study sections provide a brief overview of the formal intelligence services and authorized bodies for their oversight. The focus is put on the role of the parliament (directly or indirectly through parliamentary committees) throughout the four phases of the budgetary cycle: planning, adoption, implementation and audit.

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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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Conceptualizing decentralization trends in Macedonia

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

As of writing this brief, Macedonia is in the wake of the first anniversary of the start of decentralization process. More than a year has passed since 1 July 2005 when it was marked the beginning of a very complex and major reform process the country has experienced since its independence. The importance of the first anniversary of the decentralization process comes at the critical era when the country is on the eve of starting with the second phase of the decentralization process when new fiscal and budgetary resources will be transferred from central government to the responsibilities of local self-government units. Also, it is the period when country is closely monitored by the EU institutions for its ability in being able to start with the accession talks.

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Context Analysis of the Security Sector Reform in Macedonia 1991 – 2008

Author(s): Cvete Koneska,Biljana Kotevska / Language(s): English

This paper looks at the general political and security sector context in the last two decades since Macedonian independence, and traces the major trends and events that shaped the political developments and progress with security sector reforms in post-communist Macedonia. For the purpose of this paper, the analysis of the post-communist transition period is divided in three parts, corresponding to the three periods on which we divided the context since 1991, for the sake of greater clarity and analytical coherence. For each of these three periods, we conducted an analysis of major political developments as well as institutional change. Based on this analysis, each period is qualified as characterised by a specific nature, whether post-authoritarian, conflict, postconflict, or integrationist. In the Annex attached to this paper, a short overview of the key political actors and their role in the security sector reforms and the political transition in Macedonia is offered. The first period analyzed is the period from the declaration of independence from Yugoslavia, in 1991 until the ethnic conflict in 2001. These years mark the first decade of independent statehood and democratic politics in Macedonia. The second period stretches from the ethnic conflict in 2001 until the NATO Summit in Bucharest in early 2008. The 2001 conflict had a profound impact on the political and security context in Macedonia. It produced inter-ethnic violence and culminated in a far-reaching reform of the constitutional and institutional set-up of Macedonian democracy.

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Contributor Profile: The Republic of Macedonia

Author(s): Andreja Bogdanovski / Language(s): English

Over the past decade, Macedonia has provided only a few peacekeepers to UN peace operations. Instead, it has almost exclusively focused on participation in EU and NATO missions. Macedonia’s participation in UN peace operations began in October 2006 when it deployed a single police officer to UNMIL in Liberia to work on gender issues. Currently, it contributes a single soldier to UNIFIL in Lebanon. Macedonia has offered a limited contribution to UNIFIL since 2007, with one staff officer in charge of collecting information from both sectors East and West based in the mission’s Joint Operational Centre in Naqoura. As such, Macedonia lags behind its neighbors in the Western Balkans in terms of contributions of uniformed personnel to UN missions.

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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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Emergence of Regional Leader in the Western Balkans - The case of Serbia and the implications for Macedonia

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

Serbia has always been an interesting case for analysis when dealing with the Western Balkans’ political, economical and cultural relations. Serbia’s central location in the Balkan Peninsula and its big territory (slightly bigger than Bulgaria), give her a significant importance in the geo-politics of Europe and wider. In addition the key corridor 10, which is the bloodstream of the region, passes throughout the whole country. These geo-political characteristics however, are not the only reason that makes Serbia important for the region and the EU itself. Serbia has a so called “institutional memory”, relatively long tradition of established bureaucracy reflected on functional administration and institutions which directly effects EU integration processes and makes cooperation feasible (as it is a highly bureaucratic process in nutshell). Comparatively Serbia’s statehood dates back much earlier than most of the other Western Balkan (WB) countries.

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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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Energy and Security Sector Governance in Macedonia: How to Improve its Efficiency?

Author(s): Magdalena Lembovska,Ana Stojilovska / Language(s): English

The Republic of Macedonia, due to its EU and NATO integration endeavors is experiencing many policy reforms. Especially the country’s energy and security sectors are both characterized with low transparency and limited openness for cooperation – the first due to its capital intensity and the second due to the communist system’s legacy, both also important for national security. As a result, they have been exposed but reluctant to the reform processes and have many deficiencies in their governance. Some of the identified issues include insufficient capacities, lack of financial means, delays in adopting the respective legislation and in implementing projects, all of which indicate low efficiency in these sectors’ performance. On the other hand, the Slovak Republic, also a former communist country and an EU and NATO member state showcases good examples of capacity building and institutional efficiency in the respective sectors. Its ten year-long Euro-Atlantic integration enabled gaining good experience with the reform processes in the two sectors. Additionally, according to the Worldwide Governance Indicators the Slovak Republic has better governance scores than Macedonia. Thus, the Slovak Republic can be considered as a valuable resource for applying its learnt lessons in the Macedonian case.

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Energy poverty in Macedonia

Author(s): Ana Stojilovska,Sonja Zuber / Language(s): English

Energy poverty has challenged the already socially fragile Macedonia on its way to EU integration. This paper analyzes the state of energy poverty in Macedonia and the policies tackling it in order to draft policy recommendations for their improvement to the respective stakeholders. Tackling energy poverty is important in order to bring the country on a sustainable path.

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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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