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.
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.
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.
Take Action for Healthy Air!
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), on the list of the ten most polluted cities in Europe, five are in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This is another unwanted record for the country with the second highest of rankings for air pollution mortality in 2017 in the world, behind North Korea. Between the 2nd and 4th of December, Sarajevo was the most polluted capital in the world, according to data provided by US embassies, that constantly monitor the environmental situation of the cities they are based in. BiH lacks a comprehensive strategy for combating air pollution.
Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has been part of the “Balkan route” for smuggling people, arms and drugs for decades, but also a migrant route for people who have been trying to reach Western Europe and the countries of the EU in order to save their lives and secure a future for themselves. This report offers insight into the situation on the field: is there a system responsible for protection, security, and upholding fundamental human rights? What has the state response been like? What is the role of the international community?
Open conflicts in the post-Yugoslav wars provided proponents (and users) of ethno-nationalist ideologies with plenty of experiences or "evidence" that "confirmed" all previous fears and concerns: "they" (another ethnic collective) "aimed at us". The war and post-war years were marked by the spread of narratives, which make the abstract and empty ideology of ethnicity very concrete.
As an epilogue to the failure of the initiative, the EU is now facing a political challenge in the context of constitutional reform, for which it is ill-prepared: amendment of the electoral law of BiH following the ruling of the Constitutional Court in the case of Ljubić. At the same time, the express support of the Croatian Government for the ethno-nationalist agenda of the HDZ BiH poses a serious threat to the EU's unity in its approach to Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially in the context of constitutional reform. The EU, which wants to avoid any discussion about constitutional reform, now stands with its back to the wall.It looks like, after the parliamentary elections in October 2018, the EU will be forced to face the country's biggest constitutional crisis since the end of the war and the failure of its initiative in BiH.
The Heinrich Böll Foundation presents the study "Media and Shrinking Space in BiH: Silenced Alternative Voices" by the authors Prof. Dr. med. Lejla Turčilo and dr. Belma Buljubašić. The study is a continuation of last year's publication "Shrinking Spaces in the Western Balkans," which deals with the global phenomenon of shrinking space actors in civil society. In this issue, the authors focus on this phenomenon in relation to the media.
Diese Ausgabe des Perspectives Magazins beschäftigt sich mit dem Captured-States-Phänomen - Korruption und Nepotismus und die Auswirkungen auf den Rechtsstaat und das leben der Bürger/innen Bosnien-Herzegowinas. AUch die Vergabe von Arbeitsplätzen an taugliche, aber nicht kompetente Personen, der Einfluß von Politik auf Bildung, Pressefreiheit, Nationalismus als politisches Instrument der Machterhaltung und andere Themen werden in dieser Ausgabe genauer beleuchtet.
Das Magazin ist in englischer Sprache verfasst.
