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The challenge of the European integration of Kosovo: regional cooperation and neighbourly relations

Regional Cooperation: Supporting Peace and State-building

Jelica Minić European Movement of Serbia

Prishtina 24 May 2017 Regional Organizations Cooperation Dialogue Association of States Association of Southeast Asian Nations Central American Integration System Commonwealth of Independent States Community of Latin American and Caribbean States Council of Economic Community of West African States Economic Cooperation Organization GUAM Latin American Parliament Melanesian Spearhead Group NATO Organization of American States Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Shanghai Cooperation Organisation South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation TAKM Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat Union of South American Nations NORDEFCO Organisations grouping almost all the countries in their respective continents. Russia is member of both the (COE) and the Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD), Several smaller regional organizations with non-overlapping memberships Annex 1

Taskforces and Initiatives in SEE

Based on the RCC mapping of regional initiatives and task forces in 2010 and descriptive “Overview of Regional Initiatives and Task Forces in South East Europe”, Annex III of the RCC Strategy and Work Programme 2014-2016, and RCC Strategy and Work Programme 2017-2019, Annex 1. http://www.rcc.int/admin/files/docs/reports/RCC-Strategy-and-Work-Programme- 2017-19-rich.pdf as well as news on the www.rcc.int and on the web sites of other regional initiatives Taskforces and Initiatives in SEE in 2014 Annex I

Bosnia and Country Albania Bulgaria Croatia Greece Moldova Montenegro Romania Serbia Macedonia Kosovo* Slovenia Herzegovina Regional Initiative

SEE Investment Committee (SEEIC) observer - Sarajevo x x x x x x x x x Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) - Brussels x x x x x x x

Business Advisory Council (BAC) - Thessaloniki x x x x x x x x x x x x Regional Network of National Investment Promotion Agencies in SEE (RNIPA) - Rotating x x x x x x Regional Rural Development Standing Working Group (SWG) - Skopje x x x x x x x x x Centre for Public Employment Services of SEE Countries (CPESSC) - Rotating x x x x x x x x x SEE Trade Union Forum (SEETUF) - Zagreb/Sarajevo x x x x x x x x x Adriatic Employers' Centre (AREC) - Zagreb x x x x x x

SEE Health Network -Skopje x x x x x x x x x Western Social Agenda 2020 Working Group - Sarajevo x x x x x x x

eSEE Initiative and bSEE Task Force Economic and Social Development Socialand Economic - UNDP Sarajevo x x x x x x x x x Annex I Taskforces and Initiatives in SEE in 2014

Bosnia Monte- Roma- Slovenia Albania and Bulgaria Croatia Greece Moldova Serbia Macedonia Turkey Kosovo* Country negro nia and others Herzegovina Regional Initiative Energy Community Secretariat (ECS) - Vienna x x x x x x x x South East Europe Transport Observatory (SEETO) - Belgrade x x x x x x x

ISIS Programme Secretariat EC, RCC - Brussels x x x x x x x Joint Service Provision Area (JSPA) in South East Europe - rotating x observer x observ. x x

International Sava River Basin Commission (ISRBC) Slovenia - Zagreb x x x Slovenia and Regional Environmental Centre for 18 more Central and (REC) European -Szentendre, Hungary countries x x x x x x x x x and USA

Energy and Infrastructure and Energy Environment and Climate Regional Accession Network (ECRAN) - Vienna x x x x x x x x Taskforces and Initiatives in SEE in 2014 Annex I

Slovenia Bosnia and Monte- Country Albania Bulgaria Croatia Greece Moldova Romania Serbia Macedonia Turkey and Herzegovina negro Kosovo* others Regional Initiative

Migration, Asylum and Refugee Regional Initiative (MARRI) - Skopje x x x x x x Regional Anticorruption Initiative (RAI) - Sarajevo x x x x x x x x x

Southeast European Law Hungary, Enforcement Centre (SELEC) Slovenia - Bucharest x x x x x x x x x x X Southeast European Prosecutors Advisory Hungary Group (SEEPAG) Slovenia - Bucharest x x x x x x x x x x X

Southeast Europe Police Chiefs Association (SEPCA) - Sofia x x x x x x x x x Women Police Officer Network (WPON) - No headquarters x x x x x x x x x

Secretariat of Police and Home Affairs Home and Cooperation Convention Slovenia for Southeast Europe (PCC- Hungary SEE Secretariat) Austria - Ljubljana x x x x x x x x Western Balkans Prosecutor Network

Justice Justice (PROSECO) - No headquarters x x x x x x x

South East Europe Law Schools Network (SEELS) - Skopje x x x x x x Taskforces and Initiatives in SEE in 2014 Annex I

Bosnia Monte- Slovenia Country Albania and Bulgaria Croatia Greece Moldova Romania Serbia Macedonia Turkey negro Kosovo* and others Herzegovina Regional Initiative

Centre for Security Cooperation (RACVIAC) Slovenia -Zagreb x x x x x x x x x Disaster Preparedness and Prevention Initiative (DPPI SEE) partner - Sarajevo x x x x x x x x x Slovenia South Eastern and Eastern Europe Clearinghouse for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SEESAC) Cooperation - Belgrade x x x x x x x x RCC, UNDP Italy, South East Europe , Defense Slovenia, Ministerial USA, (SEDM) Georgia as

- Rotating x x x x x observer x x x x x observer Security The United States- Adriatic Charter - No headquarters x x x x x USA Forum for Western Balkans Defence Cooperation (SEEC) - No headquarters x x x x x x Slovenia Annex I Taskforces and Initiatives in SEE in 2014

Country Bosnia and Slovenia and Albania Bulgaria Croatia Greece Moldova Montenegro Romania Serbia Macedonia Turkey Kosovo* Herzegovina Others Regional Initiative

RCC Task Force All Fostering and Building members Human Capital (TFBHC) of RCC -Vienna x x x x x x x x x x x x Board RCC Gender Task Force (GTF) - Zagreb Slovenia x x x x x x x x x x x Education Reform Initiative of South Eastern Europe (ERI SEE) TFFBHC -Belgrade x x x x x x x x Regional Platform for Benchmarking and Cooperation in Higher Education and Research

- Dubrovnik

cutting Issues cutting Human Capital and Capital Human

- x x x x x x Slovenia South East European Centre for Entrepreneurial Cross Learning (SEECEL)

-Zagreb x x x x x x x x Building Building The Western Balkans Research and Innovation Strategy Exercise Facility (WISE) x x x x x x x Annex I Taskforces and Initiatives in SEE in 2014

Bosnia and Monte- Slovenia Albania Herzego- Bulgaria Croatia Greece Moldova Romania Serbia Macedonia Turkey Kosovo* Country negro vina Regional Initiative

Regional Secretariat for Parliamentary Cooperation in South Eastern Europe (RSPC SEE) - Sofia x x x x x x x x x x x x

Conference of the European Integration Parliamentary Committees of States participating to the Stabilization and Association Process (COSAP) - Rotating x x x x x x x

Parliamentary Cooperation Parliamentary CETINJE Parliamentary Forum - Cetinje x x x x x x x x x Annex I Taskforces and Initiatives in SEE in 2014

Bosnia and Monte- Country Albania Herzego- Bulgaria Croatia Greece Moldova Romania Serbia Macedonia Turkey Kosovo* Slovenia negro vina Regional Initiative Regional School of Public Administration (RESPA) -Danilovgrad x x x x x x Network of Associations of Local Authorities of SEE (NALAS) - Skopje Good Governance x x x x x x x x x x x x South East European Cooperation Process (SEECP) - Rotating x x x x x x x x x x x x Regional Cooperation

Council Initiatives

Overarching - Sarajevo x x x x x x x x x x x x x

partner 1 observer observer observer observ. 1 1 1 1 member member member memb. Total: 46 44 45 24 43 10 19 45 24 44 45 16 20 16 Table 1. SEE Regional Cooperation Events per Area

Organized/ Cooperation Area Others Total co-organised by RCC Economic and Social Development 12 51 63 Energy and Infrastructure 9 36 45 Justice and Home Affairs 9 39 48 Security Cooperation 5 32 37 Building Human Capital 5 21 26 Parliamentary Cooperation 2 7 9 Media Cooperation 4 10 14 Cooperation of Local Communities 1 1 2 Civil Society Cooperation 1 8 9 Events of political profile 0 31 31

Horizontal Cooperation 2 8 10 RCC PR 3 0 3 Managing of the RCC 5 0 5 Total 58 244 302 Table 2. SEE Regional Cooperation Meetings/per country SEE Country Town Total Albania Tirana 7 Duress 2 9 Bosnia and Sarajevo 64 Banja Luka 4 Mostar 1 69 Herzegovina Bulgaria Sofia 7 Burgas 1 Pravec 1 9 Dubrovnik 3 Split 2 Pula 1 Croatia Zagreb 19 Opatija 1 29 Cavtat 1 Zadar 1 Rovinj 1 Greece Thessaloniki 2 2 Moldova Chisinau 1 1 Montenegro Podgorica 3 Cetinje 2 Budva 17 Danilovgrad 2 Milocer 1 25 Romania Bucharest 4 4 Viminacium 1 Serbia Belgrade 32 Novi Sad 1 Palic 1 Kopaonik 3 39 Arandjelovac 1 Brdo kod Slovenia Ljubljana 7 Bled 4 Maribor 1 13 Kranja 1 The Former Yugoslav Republic Skopje 8 Ohrid 5 13 of Macedonia Turkey 1 4 1 6 Kosovo* Pristina 5 Peja 1 6 Subtotal 225 *This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSC 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence. Western Balkans in 2020 Result of a Broad Consultative Process Five pillars of SEE 2020

Integrated growth deeper regional trade and investment linkages and policies enhancing the flow of goods, investment, services and persons

Smart growth Inclusive growth commitment to compete on value skills development, employment added, promoting knowledge and creation and labour market innovation across the board participation by all, including vulnerable groups and minorities

Sustainable growth Governance for growth enhancing competitiveness, entrepre- improving the capacity of public neurship and a commitment to administrations to strengthen the rule greener and more energy-efficient of law and reduce corruption so as to development create a business-friendly environment SEE 2020 Implementing Structure

Ministries of trade, economy, investment

SEEIC CEFTA

Ministries of ERI PAR, justice, SEE Ministries of interior, pillar: TFCS education, judicial RAI integrate science, authorities d growth information e-SEE society, culture RESPA pillar: pillar: NALAS governan GovBoard smart R&D ce growth Platform RCC SEE 2020

pillar: pillar: inclusive sustainab SEEIC IGWGSD growth le growth Ministries of Ministries of education, SEEHN ECS economy, energy, employment, environment, social affairs, REC agriculture, health SEECEL SEETO transport Networks and initiatives in the area of security and justice and home affairs in SEE, 2012

Iztok Prezelj, Faculty of Social Sciences, Ljubljana Introduction

Regional cooperation in the Western Balkans has demonstrated its viability in the last two decades. In the initial phase, international support was the key factor inducing the re-establishment of regional connections.

Since the transfer of ownership from internationally led structures towards those that are regionally owned began in 2008, the flourishing of regional initiatives, networks, task forces, and projects has taken place, and led to the new reality of one or two regional meetings (or meetings devoted to the region) per day in recent years.

This presentation will offer short analysis of the general constellation and main players and mechanisms of cooperation, as well as the chronology, existing challenges, obstacles, and prospects for its further development. What, where, who, why... What: Regional cooperation is a global phenomenon which assumes a different form, size and scope in the many areas of political, social and economic life.

Where: The SEE region includes countries that have been granted candidate status (Turkey, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Albania)and those aspiring to achieve candidate status and eventually start EU accession negotiations (Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as Kosovo), one country whose European aspirations are pursued within a different EU institutional framework (Moldova), as well as several EU member states (Greece, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia). The Western Balkans consist of Albania, BiH, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. • When: There are more than 20 years since the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement and the re-establishment of multilateral cooperation in the region (SEECP). • Who: The great number of players involved requires an appropriate structuring and prioritization in evaluating their role. • How: The aspirations to join the EU and NATO, as well as an extensive reliance on international financial institutions (IFIs) and other donors, imply heavy conditionality. Regional cooperation is among the major preconditions for support (through the coordination of various sector policies and donors’ assistance, and the development and promotion of regional projects demanding common efforts, networking, or an economy of scale which attracts foreign investors). Simultaneously, countries of the region develop different forms of cooperation through their autonomous initiatives. • Direction of actions: From the very beginning top-down course of action has been followed, and in some areas even preceded by another that was bottom-up (in particular by civil society organizations and local communities). Why: Regional cooperation is an important EU membership pre-condition, but also a means to foster dialogue, reconciliation and stability, as well as socio-economic development across the SEE region: - At the beginning, regional cooperation in the Balkans was regarded mainly as a peace strategy. - Later on, regional cooperation in SEE was understood as part of the wider context of European and Euro-Atlantic integration, and was seen as instrumental for the core objectives of the EU and NATO in this region. - It took some time before it was understood as something valuable in itself – as instrumental in providing the requisites for socio-economic development, competitiveness, and an overall better image of the region before it is fully integrated into the EU. Interests

• There are specific interests behind the institutions providing the framework for some of the activities through which the multilateral cooperation manifests itself. When establishing and developing regional cooperation, these interests were not guided only by the prospect of European integration. The authentic regional interests emerged and were recognized. • The characteristics of these interests and those who uphold them differ from one field of cooperation to another. Certain forms of economic cooperation like science, culture, sport, civil society, and local communities, had all beaten their own paths to cooperation already, without too much intervention on the part of state institutions – these came later. With increasing frequency, however, it is the governments that stand firmly behind key projects in regulating the regional market, infrastructure, energy and transport. Here the EU has stimulated and assisted the emergence of institutions of cooperation. New bodies of interest are being set up directed at making multilateral cooperation sustainable in the long term. Phases • Since the year 1999, when the conflicts and dissolution of the former Yugoslavia ended, regional cooperation in the Balkans has had an exponential growth. Although many countries of the region had already joined various regional organizations established in the previous decade, or even earlier, such as the Central European Initiative (CEI), the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC), or the Adriatic Ionian Initiative (AII), and in 1996 the South East European Cooperation Process (SEECP) practical, sectoral and SEE region-focused cooperation has flourished only after the achievement of peace arrangements and the basic stabilization of the political climate in the region. • The SEECP and the Stability Pact for South East Europe provided the operational framework and principal guidance for this process. The first of these was fully regionally owned and operated at the political level. The second was externally induced by the EU and other interested international partners like the US and Russia, in 1999. This was preceded in the same year by the SAP, as the European perspective incentive which combined the real interests of the Balkan countries in peace, stability and prosperity, with a strong external conditionality (the EU and to a considerable extent NATO). That was the playing ground which was defined mostly from outside the region, but supported by the region itself. • The next phase in the further consolidation of this framework was marked by the Thessaloniki EU–Western Balkans Summit in 2003, which explicitly opened the European perspective to this post-conflict region, and simultaneously offered additional incentives for regional cooperation in concrete areas in which the EU invited the region to follow its key policies (trade liberalization, development of small and medium-sized enterprises, research and development, access to specific EU programs, etc). Players 18 years after, there is a following structure of regional players: • SEECP as a strong regional promoter of stabilization and reforms, covering the whole of the Balkans, and fully regionally owned and governed from the very beginning; • Stability Pact for SEE has been transformed into the regionally owned Regional Cooperation Council (RCC), which in 2017 celebrates its ninth anniversary as an effective operational arm of the SEECP and the main regional coordination mechanism. • Over 50 different regional organizations, initiatives and networks operating in the wide spectrum of areas of common interest for the countries in the region. Most of them have been established by the interested stakeholders in the region, or in cooperation with external partners and, in some cases, by the EU or other international agencies/organizations. Public Opinion Survey: Main findings

• Support for regional cooperation continues to be strong and there is the perception that it has been improving • Support for the EU integration remains relatively weak and Euroscepticism is gaining strength in some economies • EU integration fares better if set against any alternative, which is similar to the attitude that is currently prevalent in the EU itself Public Opinion Survey: Main findings

• Employment rate continues to be low • Inequality is perceived as increasing • Risk of falling into poverty is increasing • Labour markets continue to reward connections and education • Leaving the economy and the region is still quite desirable • Governance continues to be seen as the main problem • Corruption is widespread What do you think are the two most important problems facing your economy? Do you agree that regional cooperation can contribute to the political, economic or security situation of your society? Do you think that EU membership would be (is – for Croatia) a good thing, a bad thing, or neither good nor bad? Conclusion • In politically divided , most conflicts, interstate or intrastate, are caused by or associated with weak state institutions. • Global infrastructure in conflict management has been more effective at freezing conflicts than finding sustainable solutions. • Most of the interventions are state-centric. Economic and civil society stakeholders are traditionally excluded from negotiation processes between the parties to a conflict. • Under conditions of poor governance and underdevelopment, poverty and unemployment, corruption and lack of democracy, negotiated agreements are hard to consolidate. • The institutional infrastructure of condition the prospects and effectiveness of conflict management and peace building. • The impact of regional arrangements and the extent of changes in the society are simultaneous and interconnected. • Reconciliation is the ultimate goal of the intervention in conflict management. This is also the measure of success of cultivating institutionalized peace system for addressing current and future conflicts or tensions in the Western Balkans.

See: Anna Ohanyan, Networked Regionalism as Conflict Management, Stanford University Press, 2015.