13:20 11/09/2021
The outgoing German chancellor visits the Western Balkans once again. The complicated problems of this region occupied a special place on her agenda in the 16 years of her governing mandates. But what did Merkel achieve?
With her fist on the table and with open words, Merkel has only spoken once: On August 23, 2011, the then Serbian president, Boris Tadić, stood with an embarrassed expression at the press conference in Belgrade next to her friend from Berlin. The chancellor repeated coldly and in a neutral tone what she had told Tadic behind closed doors. Serbia must stop supporting the north of its former province, Kosovo. Belgrade should give the green light for the membership of the independent state of Kosovo in international organizations. Otherwise, there is no way forward with Serbia's membership in the EU.
Tadic, the government and the vast majority of Serbs felt insulted. We will never give up Kosovo because of the EU, it was said unanimously. True: official Serbia let Merkel go empty-handed. The correction of Belgrade's policy was not even done for a little bit. But this did not prevent the SPD, a year later, from honoring Tadić with the "Roter Bock" medal.
After the experience in Belgrade, Merkel changed her tactics. Instead of confrontation, she asked for cooperation with Balkan politicians. Bosnia-Herzegovina's political leaders, often called failures, were invited one by one to the chancellor's office to get them to change their stance on the issues of the conflict. At the beginning of 2015, Merkel sent her Foreign Minister, now President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, to Sarajevo. Together with the British Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, they should commit in writing to make functional through constitutional reforms the state of Muslim Bosniaks, Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats. As a reward, the country would receive financial aid to recover the destroyed economy. But even this initiative did not bring changes.
The new attempt with the "Berlin Process"
In 2014, Merkel convened the Berlin Conference with the heads of governments and states of the Western Balkans, now known in diplomatic history as the "Berlin Process". Precisely this format brought concrete results: a regional youth network according to the German-French model, roaming charges between the conflicting Balkan countries were also removed. Despite this, the creation of a common regional market of these countries and the expansion of the underdeveloped infrastructure is still in its infancy.
The EU and Germany have had several pressure tools in hand for years, to make the main politicians there move from their rigid positions. Two thirds of the region's trade is carried out with Western Europe and especially with Germany and Austria. Most foreign direct investment also comes from the EU. Hundreds of thousands of people originating from the Western Balkans and Southeast Europe have immigrated to Western Europe, especially to Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Financial flows from Europe support consumption
Maybe you don't have to go as far as Croatian coach Miroslav Blazevic, who years ago asked the region to have good relations with Berlin, because probably according to him 30% of Croats and 50% of Bosniaks lived on financial aid from Germany. It is true that the remittances of immigrants make up more than 10% of the total gross output of these countries. This money goes mainly to consumption and ensures that social and economic problems are kept under control.
Merkel remained faithful to the motto "with bread and sausage" in the Western Balkans until the end. Membership in the EU would have to be so attractive that the main leaders of the region would be forced to make political concessions to resolve conflicts. A dearer personal course of the chancellor should eventually lead to results.
Corrupt structure and political partners
But in the EU, precisely during Merkel's time, problems such as rampant corruption, pressure on justice or media whipping were left aside with generosity. After all, political partners should not be angry. The current Serbian president, Aleksander Vučić, for whom not only the opposition raises his voice as following an autocratic policy, regularly boasts of his personal friendship with Merkel. She herself hosted him demonstratively during the election campaign in the chancellor's office and made it clear once again who she considered a political partner.
Even the newest member of the EU, Croatia, for whose membership Merkel was strongly committed, did not kill Merkel's mind too much. When Zagreb denied Berlin the extradition of a secret service officer suspected of murder despite an EU arrest warrant, Merkel demonstratively boycotted the EU membership celebrations. In the election campaign in May 2019 for the European Parliament in Zagreb, Merkel applauded, -without knowing-, that this was the music of the nationalist singer Thompson and she had to listen to nationalist speeches.
In terms of the EU integration of the Western Balkans, Merkel did not succeed. What remains from the outgoing chancellor is the massive financial aid for the Western Balkans with her commitment. Just this week, Brussels approved 14,2 billion dollars, with which the candidate countries of the region will be supported until 2027. And if these financial means will be used properly, it is not known because of the corrupt structures in these countries./DW
Source of information @TvKlan: Read more at: www.botasot.al
