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Prejudices separate and EU integration connect Belgrade, Pristina and Tirana
EU integration can improve relations between Belgrade, Pristina and Tirana, and the maintenance of existing stereotypes will downgrade them – this is the conclusion of the expert discussion about the future of relations between the three communities organized on 9th September 2013. by the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP).
{image1}Challenges in the normalization of relations and the assessment of key external factors that will influence the future of relations between Belgrade-Pristina-Tirana for next ten years were the topics of the expert discussion BCSP organised with the aim to analyze medium-term perspective of possible changes in Serbia, the region and Europe.
“The idea is that the domestic political and security community try to think in a new way, to look further into the future and see which of the current issues will still be significant, and which will not be topics of discussion,” explained in her opening speech BCSP Director Sonja Stojanovic Gajic.
Panelists were BCSP Board Member and lecturer at the Faculty of Political Science Filip Ejdus, former state secretary of the Ministry for Kosovo and Metohija and the carrier of electoral lists Civic Initiatives Serbia, Democracy, Justice Oliver Ivanovic and MP Zoran Ostojic. The discussion was moderated by BCSP President of the Executive Board Miroslav Hadzic.
The panelists agreed that the EU integration can improve relations between Belgrade, Pristina and Tirana. Ejdus believes that the region is important for the EU's global role.
Economy is the basis for cooperation in the region
Ostojic said that economic cooperation is a major opportunity to improve the relations between Serbia and Albania and noted that “it is certainly easier to export to Tirana than to Finland”.
The meeting pointed to the problem of those from this area who want to reach the EU states for economic reasons.
Ivanovic said that the EU has a serious economic and security problems with a large number of refugees and that it is less expensive to invest in the stability of the Western Balkans.
The State Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Vladimir Bozovic, who joined the discussion from the audience, also pointed out the issue of false asylum seekers. He said that the Serbian authorities will cooperate with colleagues from the EU in order to solve this problem.
The participants agreed that the relationship among the three parties is burdened by stereotypes and they said that Albanians know far more about Serbia, and that the Serbian public is not interested in topics related to the Albanians.
Greater Albania is a typical stereotype
Presenting analysis of research on Serbian and Albanian media reporting done as part of another BCSP regional project, Ejdus mentioned “territorial claims of Tirana to create a Greater Albania” as classic stereotype.
Ostojic views the stories on the creation of a Greater Albania as impossible, and from his own experience from visit to Albania he said that stereotype of the Albanian conquest of the Serbian territory through a large birth is incorrect.
Ivanovic said that Kosovo's people will deal less with issue of a Greater Albania and more with the living standard because 30 percent of the people are poor and “inundated by the problem of how to survive with a salary of 200 euros”.
{image2}Scenario planing for the year 2023
The introductory discussion was followed by scenario planing session on the topic of relations in the triangle Belgrade-Pristina-Tirana in the next ten years. Representatives of the Parliament, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, civil society organizations, academia, media and young researchers were engaged in the process. Poverty, low level of democratic development, history, crime and corruption, prejudice – these were all mentioned as some of the key factors influencing the current situation are. In an attempt to project future events, participants were thinking about the factors that may be relevant in the year 2023. Highlighted as the relevant future factors were the uncertainty of EU perspective opposed to European integration and the positive social and political change opposed to a situation where such changes are absent. In conclusion, the participants came up four possible scenarios in 2023: Every Balkan road leads to Brussels, the Balkans take care of himself, Nothing new in the Balkans and new divisions of Balkans.
Tags: ..., belgrade, centre, communities, conference, connected, future, improve, integration, organized, policy, prejudices, priština, relations, security, separated, september, stereotypes, three, tirana
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