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31. Tableau de bord des pays d’Europe centrale et orientale et d’Eurasie 2013 (Volume 1 : Europe centrale et orientale)

Author:
Jean-Pierre Pagé, Anne De Tinguy, Jacques Sapir, Julien Vercueil, Hélène Clément-Pitiot, Matthieu Combe, Vitaly Denysyuk, and Raphaël Jozan
Publication Date:
12-2013
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales (CERI)
Abstract:
Dans le Tableau de bord d’Europe centrale et orientale et d’Eurasie de 2009, nous écrivions que les pays de l’Europe centrale et orientale étaient « touchés mais pas coulés » par la crise mondiale. Quatre ans après, ce diagnostic est toujours valable. Si l’Union européenne reste pour eux un idéal et si l’adhésion à cette union demeure un projet clairement balisé pour les Etats qui n’en sont pas encore membres, celle-ci, engluée dans ses contradictions, paraît trop souvent absente, silencieuse. Aux populations qui lui demandent un meilleur niveau de vie et plus de justice sociale, elle répond par des exigences de réformes et d’austérité et alimente ainsi dangereusement leurs désenchantements. Savoir leur répondre, c’est le défi majeur de l’Union européenne aujourd’hui. Les pays de l’Eurasie, s’ils sont moins directement touchés par la crise de la zone euro et conservent, en conséquence, une croissance nettement plus élevée, ont d’autres préoccupations. Fortement sollicités par la Russie qui entend consolider sa zone d’influence avec la concrétisation de l’Union économique eurasiatique, ils sont aussi l’objet de l’attraction qu’exerce sur eux l’Union européenne – comme en témoignent éloquemment les évènements survenus en Ukraine – et, de plus en plus, la Chine. Cet espace est donc actuellement dans une recomposition qui conditionne les possibilités de son développement.
Topic:
Economics, Energy Policy, Markets, Nationalism, Natural Resources, European Union, Finance, Multilateralism, Europeanization, and Multinational Corporations
Political Geography:
Poland, Lithuania, Kosovo, Estonia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Balkans, Romania, Macedonia, Hungary, Albania, Croatia, Latvia, Montenegro, Czech Republic, Western Europe, Slovenia, Slovakia, European Union, and Bosnia and Herzegovina

32. Serbia's New President Eyes EU Membership

Author:
Alex Cooper
Publication Date:
07-2012
Content Type:
Working Paper
Abstract:
The new Serbian president, Tomislav Nikolic, has been making waves in the international community since winning the May 20th run-off election against incumbent Boris Tadic. Since Nikolic and his center-right Serbian Progressive party and its allies won 73 out of 250 seats in the National Assembly, Nikolic has been making some controvsial statements regarding some of Serbia’s neighbors. Nikolic won with 50.21 percent of the vote, while Tadic won 46.77 percent. The shocking statements from Nikolic began with an interview the president did before the second round of elections on May 6th with the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. In the interview, Nickolic stated that a “greater Serbia was his unrealized dream” and “Vukovar was a Serbian town in which Croats should not return.” The Croatian President, Ivo Josipovic and other officials have spoken out against Nikolic’s comments. Josipovic and other leaders from the Balkans did not attend Nikolic’s inauguration due to the comments, and the Croatian president cancelled a trip to Belgrade that was supposed to take place at the end of June. During the war following Croatia’s claim to independence from Yugoslavia, Vukovar experienced severe damage from the Yugoslav army that was led by Serbs. After Vukovar fell to the Yugoslav army, over 200 Croats were killed. Many Croatians still view Vukovar's story as a difficult topic. This was the only controversial statement from Nikolic. He recently told Montenegrin state television, “There was no genocide in Srebrenica.” The International Court of Justice and the UN war crimes tribunal have both ruled the massacre of over 7,000 Muslim men and boys in 1995 as genocide. The massacre is the worst atrocity to occur in Europe since World War II. The international community has condemned the remarks by Nikolic. A spokesperson for the European Commission, Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen, said that the comments were “attempts to rewrite history.” Hansen also said, “The atrocities in Srebrenica in July 1995 were a crime against all humankind, and we should never forget it, and we should never allow it to happen again.” On June 14th, the Associated Press reported that EU officials would discuss Nikolic’s recent comments with the new president. While meeting in Brussels, Nikolic attempted to show that Serbia was prepared for EU membership. He claimed, “There is not better future for Serbia than membership in the Union.”
Topic:
International Cooperation, European Union, and Economic Cooperation
Political Geography:
Europe and Serbia

33. On the Road to the EU: Monitoring Equal Opportunities for Women and Men in Serbia

Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Open Society Foundations
Abstract:
Currently Serbia is a diverse community with no social consensus on the majority of war crimes-related issues, as well as racism, homophobia, and gender equality. The conflict in values, ideologies, and goals is intense and persistent. At the same time, poverty, social exclusion, and violence are predominant characteristics, a way of life for marginalized groups, including women. One of the rare issues where consensus has emerged is a strong sense of affiliation and orientation towards the European Union (EU). To date, the EU has played an important if not crucial role in political and public rhetoric, although there remains an ostensible rift between the values it espouses and those that currently obtain in Serbia. Serbia’s parliament has enacted some important legislation vis-à-vis the state’s responsibility to protect political, social, and other human rights. Some gender-equality mechanisms have been introduced, but randomly funded. New institutions generally lack the requisite authority to stop and prevent discriminatory practices by those who violate other's rights or abuse their own power. This report is one of a seven-part series, "On the Road to the EU," prepared as part of the OSI Network Women’s Program's “Bringing the EU Home” Project. This three-year project aims to promote awareness, advocacy, and enforcement of equal opportunity legislation at the national level and to build the capacity of national actors in civil society to use EU-level gender equality mechanisms effectively. The project further aims to help increase the importance of equal opportunities on the European agenda. An assessment of the status of equal opportunities between women and men, de jure and de facto, was carried out in seven South Eastern European entities: Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia. The reports were prepared in cooperation with the International Gender Policy Network.
Topic:
Gender Issues, European Union, Women, Sexuality, Men, and Equality
Political Geography:
Serbia