Democracy

There is a grotesque reversal of the paradigm of law and order. Neither laws nor international standards determine what is rightful, but criminal power cartels, which show close overlapping with the dominant parties. As a consequence, thereof, personal and human rights are largely undermined, the individual barely stands a chance in those structures outside the legal jurisdiction to assert his/her rights. The EU, has not been able to contain those destructive forces and to emphatically campaign for its agenda – democracy, liberality, diversity. With its trepidation, which the EU displayed already during the Bosnian War, the EU now fails anew to defend European values in the Balkans. This however increasingly also endangers the EU in its very foundations: raging destructing ideologies, which have forged ahead during the 1990ies, now bounce back into the EU and endanger the cohesion inside the Union.

A devastating decline of Human-Rights is happening in Bosnia and Herzegovina and more particularly in the Una-Sana Canton. In just a few weeks, almost all the fundamental rights guaranteed by international law were continuously violated: deprivation of access to water, food and shelters and violation of the right to medical care and freedom of movement

North Macedonia must continue to wait for the start of EU accession negotiations. The European Councils decision has triggered a political crisis in the country. Not only the EU has lost credibility, but also Zoran Zaev's government. It should not be forgotten, however, that the upcoming new elections will once again confront in particular the civil society in North Macedonia with challenges that should not be underestimated.