Since the beginning of the year was announced several important multimillion infrastructure and other projects related to the region i.e. the highway Belgrade-Sarajevo, the Niš- Albania highway, and the last the Customs Union in the Western Balkans. Meanwhile, political issues have erupted to the foreground – from the crisis in Kosovo, the attempt to revise the verdict (BiH against Serbia for genocide), to the crisis in FYROM, in what Serbia is directly or indirectly involved. The RTS has checked how this reflects on major projects, i.e. whether economy gives way to politics?
“And before this moment, Serbia had prepared all the stages,” said Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure Zorana Mihajlović and points out that it is necessary that within BiH there is a deal on where the road will go when you cross the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Another similar project is not, it seems, under the political sparks. The cost of the highway from Nis to Drač is at least half a billion euros. The project waits June and an agreement on how to finance it.
Minister Mihajlović says the work is in progress and they are not late and that the EU is funding project-technical documentation.
Although these days there are more talks on the export of instability than export of goods, the idea in Belgrade has been to create the Customs Union in the region with a population of at least 20 million people. Officials of other countries have not declared about it. In the meantime, the intermediate step is being undertaken – an agreement on facilitation of trade.
“This involves facilitating procedures at the border, matching working hours, recognition of certificates. It is envisaged that in March the agreement is ratified in each country. Macedonia is a problem because there is no government,” said Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications Rasim Ljajić.
The project, which has no problem, is the railroad Belgrade-Budapest. The works on the first section will start in May.
From the regional vocabulary, though, words like cooperation, building, togetherness lately are more and more replaced by lawsuits, accusations, and arguing. It goes even further, revision of the Ustasha movement, threats with weapons.
“First of all what is happening in Macedonia is not a coincidence. Obviously there are global centres of power, I would have pointed to the outgoing American administration, which is trying to ignite the Balkans and is a dominant matrix that threatens the security of the Balkans. And when the security is compromised, all the serious projects then are falling into the background,” says Miša Đurković from the Institute for European studies.
Some believe that the prospect of membership in the European Union has been an incentive for development in the Western Balkans for a long time. However, now and the Balkan cannot be immune to the crisis within the Union and the messages of European leaders rarely have any effect.
