The new government in Macedonia can be the new impulse for breaking the cycle of cynicism that rules within the European Union and the Western Balkans countries regarding the Union’s enlargement process, said Florian Bieber, a professor at the Professor at the University of Graz and member of the Balkans in Europe Policy Advisory Group (BiEPAG), in an interview for “European Western Balkans.”
Bieber defines this stance by answering the question which is the most important reason for the slowing down of the European integration process of Western Balkans states whether that can be attributed to the so called “enlargement fatigue” on the side of the EU or it was a lack of will for reforms in the region.
According to him, it’s about a situation that resembles the issue with the egg and the chicken i.e. that these two things cannot be disentangled.
-The lack of will for reform is based on the fact that they do not see the rewards in terms of EU membership. Even the fatigue is a distraction and political leaders feel like they cannot promote enlargement because their citizens do not want it, which is not entirely honest, because yes – more EU citizens are skeptical of enlargement – but it is not a high-priority issue. It is not something which the EU citizens care about that much, except if we talk about Turkey. They do not like it particularly, but they are also not particularly against it. If EU governments made more case for it, they could push it. But, governments are distracted by all these other crises, so they do not want to invest the energy and the focus on it and that is what we are witnessing. The lack of reforms of the region and the lack of commitment in the EU are symbiotic. You have to break the cycle -said Bieber
Within this context, he stresses that the answer maybe lies int he new government and as an example he states Macedonia.
The new government is clearly very much based on reforms and on wanting to join the EU path again, that can help break this pattern. Currently, the governments in the Western Balkans are cynical that the EU does not really want them, the EU is cynical that the region is not really ready to join, and the citizens are cynical both about their governments and about the EU. They have to break the cycle of cynicism and say – if we have a joint goal and are actually committed to joining the EU, we can do something. Maybe having a new government in Macedonia can be an impetuous for changing this kind of dynamic – concludes Bieber
The interview with Bieber was conducted during the Civil Society Forum, which took place on 11-12 June in Trieste.
