Balkan Reconstruction and European Integration
Publisher: Vladimir Gligorov, Mary Kaldor and Loukas Tsoukalis
Volume: 69 pages, pdf
Description:
The process of ever deepening and widening integration in Europe, in which the EU has functioned as the main vehicle as well as a catalyst, contrasts sharply with the disintegration experienced in the Balkans during the 1990s. Balkanisation needs to be halted; and for this to happen, the international community, and the EU in particular, will have to assume greater responsibilities in direct co-operation with the peoples of the region. The Stability Pact can provide the appropriate framework for the adoption and implementation of concrete measures aiming at stability, democracy and economic prosperity in the Balkans. This is the next stage which should be completed sooner rather than later. This paper argues that reconstruction in the Balkans needs to be understood not just as physical and economic reconstruction but also as social and institutional reconstruction. It therefore combines an examination of security, political and economic issues, leading to the appropriate policy measures. The region is treated as a whole, although relatively more emphasis is placed on the Western Balkans which have been directly affected by the long and bloody process of dissolution of former Yugoslavia.