E.U. to give $4 b. in aid to Balkans

By Batuk Gathani

BRUSSELS, NOV. 25. The decade of nineties in recent European history was marked by the collapse of the Communist rule and a bloody civil war in the Balkans, in the wake of the collapse of the Yugoslavian Federation.

After the Dayton Peace Accord in the mid-1990's, a settlement of sorts in the Balkans was structured under the umbrella of the U.S. and NATO. The European Union had then taken prime responsibility for the economic reconstruction and political stability in the region. Five years after the accord, nothing much has been achieved in the region, with the then President, Mr. Slobodan Milosevic, holding power in what was left of the Yugoslavian Federation. With the collapse of the Milosevic regime in October, the prospects of a permanent settlement backed by major economic reforms programme brightened.

The idea of Friday's summit meeting of the regional leaders of the Balkan countries in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia, was initiated by the President of France, Mr. Jacques Chirac, before the fall of Mr. Milosevic. The task of the E.U. has been made easier today with the participation of the President of Yugoslavia, Mr. Vojislav Kostounica. His presence among other leaders of what once was Marshall Tito's realm, may have a significant impact.

The E.U. is offering an aid package of nearly $ 4 billions to help develop market activity and promote regional trade in the Balkans which comprises Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia, Yugoslavia and Albania.

How will the new economic aid programme be administered amid raging nationalistic and ethnic rivalries between various groups remains to be seen. The Catholic Croats, Muslim Bosnians and Albanians and the Orthodox Christian Serbs are often at odds with one another.

European Commission officials had originally wanted to give an aid package of euro 5,500 millions but the European Parliament did not sanction this amount and settled on giving euro 4,650 millions.

Earlier this month, the E.U. lifted nearly all customs duties for products from the Balkans in an effort to stimulate economic growth. On the more optimistic side, the Balkan region is seen as a future gateway of trade and services to the southern E.U. European officials are also aware of the deep ethnic and religious tensions within the Balkan communities and hence most analysts are cautious about forecasting the economic future.

The prospects of a multi-ethnic Bosnia emerging from the ashes of four-year-old ethnic wars still remain elusive. Croatia and Serbia would have preferred to cut Bosnia into two, with Croatia keeping the western sector and Serbia the eastern part. The Western leaders never had a consensus approach to the development in region after the collapse of the Yugoslavian Federation and the Soviet Union in 1989. More than a decade later, it is argued that it was Germany's pressure in forcing the E.U. countries to recognise Croatia's declaration of independence in 1991 launched the beginning of the end of political stability and ethnic co- existence in the region.

The German parliamentarians were carried away by the Croatian factor for two reasons. One is that there are many Croatian Catholic priests all over Germany and they have good influence over local Germans. Secondly, Croatia has been a traditional ally of Germany. One of the reasons why Croats and Serbs hate one another is that Croats collaborated with the Nazis in World War II to exterminate other ethnic minorities in the Balkans.

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Section  : International
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