Democracy

  All the media announced: “An agreement about Mostar has been signed”, “Elections will be held in Mostar” – the news has been popping up everywhere. One would think this historic agreement would “bring back co-existence and democracy”, as the famous Bosnian movie song goes. But is this really the case?

Recent events from EU border, namely Greek – Turkish border show significant limits in protecting EU external border five years after emerging of migration crisis of 2015 and 2016. As discussed by many experts, such as Sergio Carrera,[1] divergence between rule of law set by EU and Council of Europe enforced by EU institutions and agencies, and security measures introduced and implemented by EU member states.   [1] https://www.ceps.eu/ceps-publications/eu-border-management-strategy-frontex-and-challenges-irregular-immigration-canary/

The Democratic Front (DF) recently tabled amendments to the countries Election Law in parliamentary procedure. Of course, it didn't take long for the HDZ and SNSD headquarters to make it known that they didn't want to talk about it. At the same time, however, the first people of these two parties are threatening to block the state unless the Election Law changes. If, however, they do not want to discuss material put out by DF, the only thing that can be concluded is that the amendments to the Election Law must follow the basic principles under which HDZ operates. So, it’s either the Election Law according to the solutions offered by the HDZ or the combined Čović-Dodik blockade of the state.

Every day I go to the mountains with my colleague Dean Blažević and some Bosnian volunteers to look for people. Sometimes 20 miles deep in the woods we find women, children, teens and adult men. Frozen, hungry, with wet clothes and some sick or beaten by Croatian border police.

The awarding of the Nobel Prize to Peter Handke has far-reaching consequences: His denial of the greatest atrocities which were committed after World War Two on European soil, is likely to disrupt the foundation of our democracies. Values and standards of a civilisational coexistence have been weakened. Thus, anything seems possible again: Human dignity is once more violable.

The “Strategy Group for a political, societal and economic European integration of the Western Balkans Six” is a group of legal, historical and political researches from all WB6 countries organized by Heinrich Böll Stiftung’s Belgrade, Sarajevo and Berlin offices. Its aim is to credibly advocate for a more effective European integration of the Balkans in European as well as Balkan capitals.  pdf

The “Strategy Group for a political, societal and economic European integration of the Western Balkans Six” is a group of legal, historical and political researches from all WB6 countries organized by Heinrich Böll Stiftung’s Belgrade, Sarajevo and Berlin offices. Its aim is to credibly advocate for a more effective European integration of the Balkans in European as well as Balkan capitals.  pdf

The European Commission considers on 22 October 2019 that Croatia fulfils the necessary conditions for its entry into the Schengen area. Despite numerous reports and appeals from various civil society (Are you serious, Center of peace study) representatives, gouvernmental and non-governmental organisations (UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, Council for Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International..) to alert Brussels and the public concerning the human rights violations committed by Croatia.

The world is far from achieving equality between men and women. For years, Southeastern Europe has seen almost all its political decisions being made by men; it is now the time for women to stand together and reclaim their voice in the public space.

The protection of EU external border has become one of the crucial issue or migrant and refugee crisis that Europe has been experiencing for almost five years. Since 2015 the EU external border as well as some Western Balkan countries such as Serbia and North Macedonia experience erection of physical barriers on borders. This should symbolize that individual countries sending political message to its citizens saying, ‘you are protected’ at any cost when it comes rule of law on the EU and its member states. The most profound example is Hungary where politicization of border issue has dominated the public discussion about rule of law or solidarity with people need as well as other EU member states.