After the meeting with US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of European and Foreign Affairs Vesna Pusic delivered a talk at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies on “EU and Western Balkans – What Next - the Croatian Perspective”.
Croatia took the opportunity that the Southeast European countries have, and that is a fast lane for building state institutions, approaching the EU and benefiting from the structured experiences of other European countries, said the minister.
A lot of the stuff that is being negotiated in the 35 chapters is very detailed, even boring, and is of no interest to the general public – for instance, phytosanitary standards or the size of hen cages. However, dealing with such issues changes the whole perspective for the public – there are no more “big” themes, only the everyday ones.
Croatia is the first post-conflict country to become an EU member state, Pusic said, and the enlargement to Eastern Europe in 2004 or 2007 is completely different from the process today because back then the EU was enthusiastic and optimistic about new member states, while today there is “enlargement fatigue” and economic crisis.
The countries in the region have experienced what can happen if there is no stability, and there’s always danger of it happening again if there’s no stable country and state institutions, the minister said. If most citizens are pro-European, then that can be used as an instrument of conditionality. If that is not the case, if the citizens do not see or are not in favour of the European prospect, then they will not punish the politicians who do not meet the terms.
That is why for Bosnia and Herzegovina it is important to assume a tailor-made approach, instead of saying “first you should do this and then that” before launching the process. Let’s try to look at it from a different angle and resolve issues within the process itself, which may last longer and contain more chapters, but it will be a process, Pusic said. That instrument can be useful for making BiH institutions more efficient as well, and that entails a proactive approach on the EU part as well as an understanding that nothing can be achieved overnight. As for Macedonia, it does not need a tailor-made approach as it has, in fact, met the conditions, notably in regards to NATO membership. But after it was not accepted, the situation has deteriorated.
Apart from the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the audience was interested in the state of affairs in the EU, its competitiveness in relation to other markets, as well as the growing Euroscepticism.
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