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Actors without Society. The role of civil actors in the postcommunist transformation

Author(s): Srđan Dvornik / Language(s): English

This study is primarily based on experiences during activist commitments and in my working with international foundations. The encouragement to undertake the study came from Dr. Azra Džajic´-Weber, the director of the Regional Office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Sarajevo from 1998 to 2007. The work was originally conceived as a collection and interpretation of the experiences of a broad variety of civic actors in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia. In the early stage, however, it became obvious that it was necessary first to examine, and even “deconstruct,” the fundamental concepts that have framed the original approach. Rather than assuming that building democracy and rule of law was already underway – as well as the development of civil society – it turned out that many problems lay in those very assumptions. The most important is the problem of overlooking the fact that in the postcommunist transformation, society itself had yet to be established. // Therefore, the work in its final outcome is mostly dedicated to the very meaning of the basic determinants of the postcommunist transformation, in order to fathom the civic actors’ place within the newly defined framework. They are not referred to as a “civil society” but as civil actors, because it is they who, together with other factors, develop a society as a complex of autonomous relations and transactions, as well as a field for civic commitment.

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Greening the European Neighbourhood Policy. A Handbook to assess Implementation of the Action Plans in the Field of the Environment

Author(s): Claire Dupont,Nathy Rass-Masson / Language(s): English

This handbook is the result of the successful cooperation between the Heinrich Böll Stiftung and WWF and NGO partners in the neighbouring countries. It builds on the expertise gained and the work done in the context of the joint “Greening the ENP” project initiated in 2005. It is part of a process aiming to increase the capacity and involvement of NGOs in ENP implementation and monitoring. // Although focusing on the environment and sustainable development areas of the Action Plans, this handbook also seeks to provide a methodological contribution that could also be considered for adaptation to other areas covered by the Action Plans. hbs and WWF are pleased to share this methodology with other stakeholders, including NGO networks, research institutes, the European Commission and public administrations in the ENP countries. Contacts and exchanges have been established and cooperation should continue. Last but not least, the present methodology is to be seen as a flexible tool that may need further refinement. It has been tested in several countries between April 2008 and April 2009 by NGO partners and WWF offices in East ENP (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine). Their feedback and input have been crucial to ensure that this is and continues to be a living document.

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Issue Paper on EU policy toward the Western Balkans – Regional Perspective: Case studies – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia, Kosovo

Author(s): Eldar Sarajlić,Vladimir Pavićević,Vedran Horvat,Venera Hajrullahu / Language(s): English

There is no doubt that the states of the Western Balkans belong to the European Union. However, their road to the EU is by no means an easy one. The entire Western Balkan region is not only encumbered by the maladies related to its communist past, but also by the problems the region has more recently experienced due to the horrors of war. Many of the ethnic tensions have not yet cooled down. The EU is more sceptical of further enlargement now than it was prior to the large-scale enlargements that brought in the states of Central and Eastern Europe in 2004 and 2007. The current EU-27 finds consensus more difficult to reach among states that are more different politically, economically and culturally than ever before. The EU, therefore, is not hastening the next wave of enlargement. It would be a big mistake, however, for the EU to close its doors to the states of the Western Balkans. The promise of EU accession is the most reliable driver of reform and stabilization for these potential new members. One of the foreign policy priorities of the Czech EU presidency was indeed continuing accession talks with the Western Balkan states. // In this publication we offer you an overview of the situation from the perspective of experts from four Western Balkan countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo and Serbia. You are about to read a text which is in many ways significantly critical both towards domestic conditions in these countries and towards EU policy on the Western Balkan region, thanks to which you will have the opportunity to probe deeper into the problems of this region, which decidedly should not remain in the background of our interest.

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