ELIAMEP

On Friday 2 and Saturday 3 June 2017, the two-day event regarding the “The Unknown Balkans” took place at The Hub Events.

Attendees were able to discuss with more than 25 speakers (academics, diplomats, journalists and politicians) coming from EU countries and also the Western Balkans, on issues related to the region of Southeast Europe, with particular emphasis on Kosovo, FYROM and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Besides the conference panels, there were two short films and photo exhibitions as well, with pictures from the 3 countries.

Thanos Veremis, Vice President of ELIAMEP, Luan Shllaku, Executive Director of the Kosovo Foundation for Open Society, and Ioannis Armakolas, Assistant Professor at the University of Macedonia, Research Fellow Stavros Kostopoulos & Head of the Southeast Europe Program at ELIAMEP started the event with the introductory remarks.

The first day of the conference, Friday 2 June included panels for the “Skopje 2014” program in FYROM,  the possibilities of an exit from the political crisis in FYROM, on issues of democracy & the new authoritarianism in the Balkans and finally on the overall strategy of the European Union regarding the Balkan region. Among the speakers and coordinators on the first day of the event were Dimitris Kourkoulas, Dusan Reljic, Tobias Flessenkemper, Maria – Eleni Koppa, Dane Taleski, Zoran Ilievski, Alexandros Mallias, Tasos Teloglou, Patrik Svensson, Yannis Papageorgiou and others.

On the second day of the conference, Saturday 3 June, a debate was held on the problems of managing the cultural heritage in the Balkans, as well as a photo exhibition of the photographer Maria Katsaouni. Among the speakers were Dimitris Moschopoulos, Skender Boshtrakaj, Hajrula Ceku and Dzenan Sahovic.

Finally, the documentaries “Kosovo Rising” and “Home” (which won the 2017 BAFTA Short Film Awards) were screened. After the debates, discussions with the producers of the two documentaries Alexia Euripidou & Stephen Nugget and Shpat Deda respectively, took place.

The agenda of the event is available here.

The video of the event is available here.

Photo credits @Marianna Katsaouni

This is the fourth in a series of National Reports to be published as part of the new phase of the New Pact for Europe project.*

Greece continues to be in a state of vulnerability, primarily the result of severe domestic errors, but also glaring gaps in the EMU architecture, and unfortunate Eurozone crisis management. Even though the crisis was also produced by EMU systemic failures, adjustment has been highly asymmetric, focusing almost exclusively on the national level. The sense of vulnerability is exacerbated by the effects of the refugee and migration crisis. Despite the disenchantment, a solid, though weakening, majority of Greeks continue to support the country’s participation in the EU institutions and the euro. Drawing on the discussions held amongst the members of the group, the report presents a set of conclusions on how to address the key challenges in strengthening Greece-EU relations:

• To help deficit countries shoulder the burden of adjustment, Europe needs a growth- and investment-friendly policy mix, greater fiscal integration, a financial union, and a drive to integrate digital, energy, and capital markets.
• A common migration policy should be based on proper burden-sharing, and solidarity, constituting an organising principle.
• Security is an area where European citizens demand a truly common European policy. The common tools that have been created must be utilised fully, providing incentives for closer cooperation.
• Europe needs to deliver effective EU policies in foreign affairs and security policy, defence, the protection of the multilateral global order and the environment, and, at the same time, promote greater risk-sharing though the fiscal and the financial channels.

*After a first successful period in 2013-2015, which included more than 80 events in 17 EU countries and the publication of two major reports, which elaborated five strategic options on the future of the EU, the New Pact for Europe project entered a new phase in 2016-2017. The ultimate aim of this new phase of the NPE project is to work out the details of a wider ‘package deal’ to equip the EU with the tools it needs to meet the internal and external challenges it faces. This proposal will contain solutions generated by connecting the discussions on the key policy challenges, and propose changes in the way the EU and its policies are defined to avoid future fundamental crises.

National Reflection Groups have been created and met specifically for this purpose in ten EU countries (Belgium, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Slovakia), followed by transnational exchanges between these groups. This national report is the result of the work and discussions of one of these National Reflection Groups.

For more information on the NPE project, please see the project website: www.newpactforeurope.eu

Click here to download the publication.

In ELIAMEP Briefing Note 53/2017, Maja Maksimović, Research Associate of the South-East Europe Programme, analyses Serbian presidential elections held on 2 April 2017. She argues that the victory of Aleksandar Vučić, leader of the Serbian Progressive Party (Srpska Napredna Stranka – SNS) and former Prime Minister of Serbia, could lead to further consolidation of a one-man regime in Serbia and the country’s additional sliding towards an autocratic rule.

In his Working Paper Ambassador (retired) Alexandros Mallias analyses the perspectives for  improving the relations between Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of  Macedonia the day after the formation of a new Government in Skopje. Alexandros  Mallias , who was first Head of Mission of Greece to Skopje ,1995-1999, suggests that the two governments should not raise high expectations  .They should work to enhance and expand  the Confidence Building Measures’ Process  and  rather opti for a quiet diplomacy on the name issue He stresses that  fYROM’s  1991 Constitution  is a bad one ,being the root cause of problems  with  its neighbors as well as of the  endemic interethnic conflict. It was already amended  30 (thirty) times within 15 years .He is of the opinion that there are still some extra miles to go.

Mallias, former Ambassador to Albania,  analyses the Political Declaration of the Albanian Leaders in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, stressing  its importance for   addressing the interethnic tensions between Slavs and Albanians and for solving the name issue with Greece.

Mallias, who also served as Ambassador of Greece to Washington  (2005-2009),stresses that  early -since 2007- Greece’s warnings , grievances  and reactions to former P.M. Gruevski’s irredentism, nationalism and provocations proved now  to be accurate and right. Yet, the former Prime Minister was not alone in this course of action. He was supported by those  in Skopje who today disapprove him ,including some international actors. Greece will wait to see if the words of the new government in Skopje will be matched by deeds. Nationalism is still omnipresent in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia starting from  school  textbooks.

Dr Panagiota Manoli and Dr Thanos Dokos – with the contibution of Dr  Angeliki Dimitriadi and Dr Theodore Tsakiris – wrote a paper analysing the Greek perspective of relations between the EU and Turkey.  Their report has been written in the framework of the FEUTURE research project. You can access it here.

You can read here the article on how states can increase power which was written by Director General of ELIAMEP Dr Thanos Dokos. This commentary was published in the Greek daily Kathimerini on 1 June 2017 [in Greek].

Research Fellow of ELIAMEP, Dr Filippa Chatzistavrou, wrote an article about Emmanuel Macron in Huffington Post. The article is available here (in Greek).

Τhe Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) and the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) office in Greece, with the support of the Embassies of Australia, Canada and the Netherlands in Athens, organized a one and a half day brainstorming workshop on “Lessons Learned From Radicalization-Prevention Efforts”. The workshop took place on 22-23 May 2017 in Athens, at Electra Metropolis Hotel.

The Workshop started with the remarks of the General Director of ELIAMEP Dr. Thanos Dokos and the Director of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) Greece, Mrs. Susanna Vogt. At the Workshop participated Experts and officials who have worked on integration and radicalization-prevention policies from several European countries, but also Australia, Canada, Israel  as well as experts from Europol, Interpol, RAN and the EU Commission.

All of the participants had the opportunity to present and exchange their knowledge on issues of radicalization and the ways to prevent it. The main objective of the Workshop, to start a process of education for Greek officials on radicalization prevention strategies and policies, was successfully achieved.

The agenda is available here.

The list of participants is available here.

The report will soon be available.

Inter Alia, the South-East Europe Programme/ ELIAMEP and Kosovo Foundation for Open Society (KFOS) explore ον 2 and 3 June 2017 the Unknown Balkans through discussions with distinguished experts specializing in the Balkans region. Aiming at a comprehensive approach of the social and political structures of the Unknown Balkans, the program also includes cultural content regarding the region. The event will take place at Hub (5 Alkminis str., 118 54 Athens) from 10 am until 8 pm.

Discussion Panels:

• What way out of the crisis in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia: domestic and regional perspectives;
• The project ‘Skopje 2014’ in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia;
• New authoritarianism in the Balkans: Crisis of democratic reforms or crisis of European perspective;
• The Western Balkans in trouble: Does the European Union still have a strategy for the region?
• Cultural heritage in post-conflict Balkans: Reconstruction and protection between identity building and inter-ethnic reconciliation

Guests, among others:

• Dimitris Kourkoulas (former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Greece & former Director, Directorate General Enlargement, European Commission)
• Veton Surroi (publicist, Kosovo)
• Dusan Reljic, (Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, Director of Brussels office)
• Tobias Flessenkemper (Senior Fellow and Balkans Project Director, Centre International de Formation Européenne (CIFE), Nice & Member of the Board, South East Europe Association)
• Alexandros Mallias (Amb ret.,Former EU Facilitator to Kosovo)
• Maria-Εleni Koppa (Assistant professor, Panteion University & former Member of the European Parliament)
• Dimitris Moschopoulos (Amb ret.)
• Dimitri Sotiropoulos (Associate professor, University of Athens & ELIAMEP researcher)
• Zoran Ilievski (Associate Professor, Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje)
• Shpat Deda (Producer, short film Home)

Cultural Content:

•  Screening: Home, BAFTA award winning short film
• Photo presentations from Kosovo and FYROM
• Screening: Freedom in Fragments, Documentary (Cyprus)

The programme is available here.

For registrations please visit here.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Greek.

Research Fellow of ELIAMEP, Dr Filippa Chatzistavrou, analyses the Greek crisis in L’Express. You can read the article here (in French).

Associate Professor  at the University of Athens and  Senior Research Fellow at ELIAMEP Dimitri A. Sotiropoulos wrote an article about the French Revolution in the Sunday edition of To Vima newspaper. The article was published on 21 May 2017 and is available here (in Greek).

Dr Evangelia Psychogiopoulou delivered a speech on the competences of the EU in the field of cultural heritage and their exercise at the Conference Cultural heritage in the European Union: Legal perspectives and contemporary challenges. The conference was organised by the University of Fine Arts in Poznań, the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Law Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, in cooperation with the Santander Art and Culture Law Review, on 20-21 April 2017, in Warsaw Poland. On 2 May 2017, Dr Psychogiopoulou discussed EU cultural governance in a closed expert workshop Beyond us versus them – The role of culture in a divided Europe, organised by ifa (Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations), the State of Baden-Württemberg, and EUNIC (European Union National Institutes for Culture) in Brussels, Belgium.

This report provides a unique, in-depth analysis of the impact of EU policies in addressing the so-called European migration or refugee ‘crisis’ in 2015 and 2016. Crossing the Mediterranean Sea by Boat undertook 257 in-depth qualitative interviews with a total of 271 participants across seven sites in two phases: Kos, Malta and Sicily from September-November 2015, and Athens, Berlin, Istanbul and Rome from May-July 2016.

Uniquely, the project focused directly on the impact of policies upon people on the move, drawing together policy analysis and observational fieldwork with in-depth analysis of qualitative interview data from people making – or contemplating making – the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean Sea. The  project also provides the first detailed assessment of policies associated with A European Agenda on Migration in terms of policy effects both across routes (eastern and central Mediterranean) and over time (2015 and 2016). The findings and analysis summarised in this report are presented with the aim of informing academics, journalists but also policy makers involved in the design and implementation of the management of irregular migration.

Companion to the report is the interactive story map, which allows the reader to retrace the journey as it unfolded; the routes and main stages as they are documented in the interviews with participants ! Follow the link and begin the journey through the Mediterranean Sea.

The project is awarded to the University of Warwick and PI Associate Professor Vicki Squire (PaIS, Warwick); Co-Is are Dr.Angeliki Dimitriadi (ELIAMEP), Dr Dallal Stevens (Law, Warwick), Professor Nick Vaughan-Williams (PaIS, Warwick), and Dr.Maria Pisani (University of Malta). The project is funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council, as part of the Urgency Grant Mediterranean Migration Research Programme: Grant Number ES/N013646/1

Through critical analysis of case law in European and national courts, this book, edited by Dr Maja Brkan, Maastricht University, and Dr Evangelia Psychogiopoulou, ELIAMEP, reveals the significant role courts play in the protection of privacy and personal data within the new technological environment. The expert contributors examine the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union, the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and decisions by national courts. Together, they explore how judiciaries balance privacy and data protection rights against other interests and investigate the influence European courts have on national judges. This book also probes the ways in which courts deal with strategic litigation aimed at law and policy reform and, in doing so, sheds light on the role and ability of courts to safeguard privacy and data protection rights.

Contributors include: M. Brkan, C. Cuijpers, P. De Hert, C. Di Cocco, J. Eichenhofer, G. González Fuster, C. Gusy, M. Husovec, T. Kyriakou, O. Lynskey, T. Ojanen, E. Psychogiopoulou, G. Sartor.

You can find more information here.

You can read here the article on the victory of Emmanuel Macron which was written by Professor George Pagoulatos. The commentary was published on 14 May 2017  in the Sunday edition of Kathimerini and is available in Greek.

The European integration process is now at a particularly critical juncture in its history. The internal and external pressures exerted on the European construction and the Brexit issue have revived the debate about the future of European integration. In the light of the publication of the White Paper on the Future of Europe by the European Commission, the authors present the fundamental dilemmas presently facing the European elites regarding EU’s future given the shifts now under way in the contemporary European and international system. The working paper sets out the most important internal and external challenges facing the EU, while it explores the conditions and preconditions under which a new European institutional architecture can emerge into the framework of differentiated integration, thus making easier the promotion of reinforced cooperation schemes between different groups of EU member states.

Working Paper 78/2017: From EU integration to a differentiated integration in Europe?

Authors: Filippa Chatzistavrou and Konstantinos Papanicolaou 

Research Fellow of ELIAMEP, Dr Filippa Chatzistavrou, gave an interview in Naftemporiki discussing the political landscape in France. The video of the interview is available here (in Greek).

A few weeks ago in Brussels, President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker warned U.S. Vice President Mike Pence of another war in the Western Balkans if the EU collapses. Juncker issued the warning in referring to Trump’s ignorant stance on the future of European integration and his support for Brexit. Although he exaggerated, there is no doubt the European dreams of the Western Balkans countries remain a long-term objective for national governments given a guarantee of relevant political stability and calm.

Internal divisions are apparent. More than two decades after the outbreak of the wars that split Yugoslavia, the trauma is still apparent in some countries struggling to achieve reconstruction and reconciliation.

Disagreements between Serbia and Kosovo following the declaration of independence of the latter, and ethnic tensions in Bosnia-Herzegovina are a usual phenomenon. International attention recently focused on the Balkans, however, due to the violent attacks in the parliament of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM).

Specifically, while the country has not yet formed a coalition government after the snap election of last December, demonstrators and supporters of former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski attacked several lawmakers after an ethnic Albanian deputy was elected speaker. Among the injured was Zoran Zaev, leader of the Social Democrats, the main opposition party.

The U.S. and the EU condemned the attacks. The former almost immediately decided to try and mediate and contribute to the finding of a political solution. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Hoyt Brian Yee visited Skopje and urged prudence. Following his intervention, political leaders in FYROM seem to have realized the seriousness, although the crisis has not yet fully dissipated. For its part, China cannot overlook the situation. Its interest does not only derive from its need to protect its diplomatic personnel and Chinese people living in FYROM, but also for the future course of Chinese investments in the country where several Chinese companies are active.

Beijing-based Sinohydro, for instance, is engaged in projects for the construction of the highways from Miladinovci to Shtip and from Kichevo to Ohrid. China Railway Rolling Stock Corp. supplied FYROM with six passenger trains following a 2014 bilateral agreement. A supplementary agreement for the delivery of four electric locomotives was signed in January 2017. Moreover, China International Water and Electric Corp. previously constructed Kozjak hydropower plant, and this successful model is useful to future energy projects. What is perhaps more important for China is that FYROM plays a key role for the implementation of the “Belt and Road” policy. Being the northern neighbor of Greece, it provides a handy passage to Serbia for commodities arriving at the port of Piraeus now completely controlled by COSCO.

A research paper of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) mentioned that China and FYROM have already agreed to prepare a feasibility study for the route and costs of railway modernization, prior to considering financial arrangements for the project. Beijing has already signed separate deals with Serbia and Hungary to construct and revamp the rail link between them.

Most commentators elaborating on the current crisis in FYROM tend to concentrate on ethnic tensions and the influence exerted on ethnic Albanians by Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama. The nationalistic idea of a “Greater Albania” with the participation of the ethnic population from Albania, FYROM and Kosovo is a subsequent point of reference. Nevertheless, more emphasis should be perhaps placed on the fatigue of citizens in seeing Gruevski as their country’s leader. As prime minister for 10 years, he is accused of corruption while the country is suffering high unemployment and poverty. For many years, he was spending a large fund for the cultivation of the national identity to avoid potential “Albanization.”

Last, but not least, his intransigent stance in negotiations with Greece under UN aegis with the purpose of finding a mutually-accepted solution for his country’s name has kept FYROM away from membership of the EU and NATO.

In these circumstances, China should certainly pay attention to internal developments in FYROM and hope for stability while avoiding endorsement of catastrophic theories about a civil war. A new government without Gruevski will sooner or later be formed and will lead the country towards a future with China, a critical international player. Zaev has expressed his commitment to closely collaborating with China in a recent meeting with new Ambassador Yin Lixian in Skopje. And ethnic Albanian politicians in FYROM are inspired by the excellent level of Sino-Albanian cooperation. Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli visited Tirana only three weeks ago confirming the traditional friendship between the two countries.

All in all, China might only be encountered with some delays in the implementation of some projects. However, experiences from the privatization of the Piraeus Port Authority suggest it can be patient.

Source: china.org.cn

You can read here the article on the situation in the Korean Peninsula which was written by Director General of ELIAMEP Dr Thanos Dokos. This commentary was published in the Greek daily Kathimerini on 3 May 2017 [in Greek].