Serbia, a European engine ” “in the Balkans?

The result of elections in Serbia on May 16 confirmed the forecasts: the strong success of the party that emerged as the winner in the 2012 elections. This result ensures the absolute power of the party of Serbia’s president-in-office Tomislav Nikolic, ex-Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, leader of the party bearing the same name. It was a crushing victory, although it must be said that only some 50% of voters went to the polls. Serbia’s parliamentary scenario now includes a smaller number of parties compared to the situation in the past two decades: four major parties sit in parliament, in addition to three smaller groups representing the country’s ethic minorities: Bosnians, Albanians and Armenians. One of the most evident features in the elections is that nearly all national, clerical and pro-Russian parties and movements – i.e. those political formations whose programmes voiced clear opposition to the handing over of Serbian war criminals to the International Court of Justice in The Hague; Serbia’s EU integration; closer relations with NATO and which also opposed the prospect of improved relations between Belgrade and Pristine (even without an official recognition of Kosovo as independent State) – have lost consensus. Thus the door opening along the path of EU adhesion is open. A sign is this direction is now needed in order to confirm that the trend that prevailed in the elections will not be confined to a phoney, rhetorical electoral promise. At present – paradoxical as it may seem – this sort of single-party rule resulting in Belgrade’s elections might further the processes that was expected to take off, even though new Prime Minister Vucic seems willing to involve other parties in his future government, apparently to share responsibility and to involve all the forces of the country in the necessary political, economic and social reforms. As regards the rest of the Western Balkan region – namely, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania: smaller countries compared to Serbia, all sharing more or less friendly relations with Belgrade – it is evident that the possibility of Serbia’s authentic pro-European policy could reverberate positively across the entire region. Such pro-European political approach should be expressed precisely in the relations with neighbouring Countries, that should be reassured by a “European” Serbia that it is definitely distancing itself from the muscular politics of its recent past. War seems behind, and yet there are still many problems to be solved in the Balkans, for example the status of the Serb minority in Kosovo and the Albanian minority in Serbia, Bosnia’s structural and institutional weaknesses, solving the issue of the name of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia… Montenegro, for its part, the smallest of all states in the Balkan area, at the moment is in a more advanced position in the European integration process, and hopes to follow its own path towards the EU without being “slowed down” by the problems of the region. In such a deeply fragmented area of Europe, also owing to its recent, tormented past, a “reconstruction” must take place grounded on solid political, economic and cultural relations, based on mutual respect. The prosperity of the entire region is at stake, which includes also neighbouring Croatia, that recently became the 28th EU Member Country. The partnership of these Countries in the framework of major common projects (infrastructure, electricity, transport, trade) could be the key to attracting foreign investment, reinforced by the opportunity of EU funding. It would be the safest path towards improved living standards helplessly longed for by the Balkan populations, since the dissolution of ex Yugoslavia.