Serbia - a move towards European integration (2)

From goal to means

It was just in the year of 2007. that Serbia accepted the National Strategy for joining the EU. During last year, about 40 new laws that would prepare the terrain for candidacy were planned, as well as the set of laws that would ease Serbia's way to "white Schengen list". Dinamics of moving forward on that path, as well as differences and obstructions in the Parliament clearly show that Serbia has to make a great effort in order to unify it's regulations with acquis communautaire in a reasonable period of time


By DANICA VLAČIĆ
from Belgrade, SERBIA


After a political will whose intesity varies on a monthly basis, a ten year latency on the way of transition, economy degradation, prime minister assassination, territorial problems and uncompleted obligations towards the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), it seems that the circle of problems is not opening, but narrowing down tightly. Political and state leaders send unclear messages shifting the process of integration from case to case, while picking up points for future candidacy and election campaigns. Being a "european man" is not always popular, obviously. It should not strike us as odd that most of the citizens in Serbia cannot determine their opinion towards the EU.

Serbia and NATO

By the end of the year 2007, Serbia proclaimed a neutral military attitude in terms of the Declaration on Kosovo. The Declaration says that no one has the right to decide on Serbia's entrance into any military alliance besides the people who are supposed to declare themselves on a referendum. The question is brought up about why the people never got the chance to also decide about the neutrality. It was proclaimed promptly instead, without a public discussion or a vote, as a one-sentence-part of Serbian National Parliament Resolution on protecting the sovereignty, territorial integrity and constitution in Serbia. Still, it was not explained that this neutrality bring certain consequences along, and costs. General manager of the Belgrade centre for European integrations, Jovan Teokarevic, wrote for the European Forum that all our neighbour countries wish to join NATO and that in the future, it will mean that Serbia will be isolated in the region. Examples of neutral Ireland, Sweden, Finland, Cyprus and Malta do us no good, because these countries are already a part of the West and can count on military help to a certain point, even if we do not take into account that they are far richer and can afford the costs of neutrality.

"Therefore, it is not about the inadequacy of a neutral military attitude for Serbia (even though it is indeed inadequate), but about the authors of this idea not having a clue about what it should imply. Obviously, the goal is to abuse this initiative for purposes of the party on upcoming elections in short terms, and to isolate Serbia from Europe and the whole world, in long terms", says Teokarevic. In oposition to this opinion stands an inquiry brought by Politikum in September and October 2007 (at the time when neutrality was proclaimed). It shows that 60,71 percent of examinees were against Serbia entering NATO.

Internal reforms

Putting aside the problems considering Serbia only, criteria and conditions still left to be fulfilled are essential and numerous. Serbia is in need for an universal state strategy that shouldn't get changed from one election to another, but has to come out of a serious political aptitude, of the citizens as well as of the authorities, to go all the way with the initiated process of changes. It was just in the year of 2007. that Serbia accepted the National Strategy for joining the EU. During last year, about 40 new laws that would prepare the terrain for candidacy were planned, as well as a set of laws that would ease Serbia's way to "white Schengen list". Dinamics of moving forward on that path, as well as differences and obstructions in the Parliament clearly show that Serbia has to make a great effort in order to unify it's regulations with acquis communautaire in a reasonable period of time. The administration has to speed up and be reorganised, corruption suppressed, the Court of Law reformed, regional cooperation developed, local level enabled for development, and the economy has to represent a competition in order to sustain the pressure of integral European market.

External factors

The appearance of some external factors, shows that moving towards EU, does not depend only on the factors Serbia can manipulate with, and its own efforts. The debate in the EU itself, which according to some experts, represents the deepest crisis of European integrity, is being held on the possibility of adopting an Agreement on Constitution (to which the Dutch and the French have said "No"), as well as the Lisbon Treaty (which was blocked after the Irish referendum). Without these documents, the EU will not be able to accept new members. Olli Rehn, European Commissioner for Enlargement, explained this problem in his book 'Europe`s Next Frontiers'. He states that the EU will overcome this crisis only if simultaneously it works on expanding and fortifying its relations. It is a fact that the "old members" had interest in every wave of expansion. In the first place, the number of workplaces grew (which is an all-time problem), caused by the expansion of the market and larger export to the "new" members. Further expansion of the European family has a positive influence on economic growth throughout the Union. Sliding from economic to less "concrete" reasons, the question is how long would Europe stay away from military conflicts in a larger dimension (after the World War II) if it hadn't been for the idea unifying.

EU as a value

Konrad Adenauer, one of the founders of unifying idea, noted that the history should not be observed only as a series of past events, but also as sum of events that could have been avoided. In the context of European integrations, Serbia should not observe Europe as a goal, but firstly as a mean of democratic changes and putting an end to everything that maybe could have been prevented.

It is an open approach and a presentation of the whole problem that could give a picture about what Europe really is. When this happens, an imaginary entity such as the EU could become more than a mean for opening the borders and lifting the standard. It is only under these conditions, that it can become a value.


(Published: 10.03.2009.)