By Anne-France White - 8th November 2006
The European commission has called for sweeping reforms across the western Balkans in a new progress report.
Wednesday's report covers the so-called “potential candidate countries”: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia.
Progress is needed in the fight against corruption across the region, and key political and economic reforms have yet to be implemented in almost all the countries.
The report praises Albania’s “determination in fighting corruption” and says it “has continued to contribute to stability in the region”.
But it calls for stronger cooperation between government and opposition to enable key political and economic reforms and improve human rights.
On Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brussels says the planned phasing out of the Office of the High Representative “is recognition of the country’s achievements in terms of security and stability”.
But it calls for more work on a broad range of areas including police reform and privatisation.
Montenegro is deemed to have made “some progress” but faces several key challenges: “the judicial system is weak, while corruption and organised crime remain problems”.
On the economic front, “reform efforts must be pursued to enable the country to cope with competitive pressure and market forces within the EU in the future”.
Serbia is in a more delicate position than its neighbours.
Its negotiations with the EU were called off in May 2006 because the authorities in Belgrade did not meet their commitments to cooperate with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
But EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn noted when the report was released that Serbia “really has the potential to catch up with the rest of the region once it has met the ICTY’s conditions”.
The report commends Serbia for the “responsible way it handled the dissolution of the State Union following Montenegro’s independence”.
But it says the fight against corruption must be stepped up and calls for economic “stabilization and reform efforts (…) in order to enable Serbia to cope with competitive pressure in the future”.
The report is most critical on Kosovo, noting that “there has been little progress regarding corruption, which remains widespread”.
“Kosovo has made limited progress towards becoming a functioning market economy,” the report notes, adding that unemployment remains high.
Progress is needed across the board, the report concludes, particularly in the fields of organised crime, trafficking of human beings and drugs, and agriculture.
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