With more than 100 guests, the ESI/EPC event was very well attended. Other participants in the debate included Axel Wallden from the European Commission; Glori Husi, Albania’s NATO coordinator; Erion Veliaj, ESI analyst and former head of the Albanian youth movement Mjaft.

I introduced the film on Albania that aims to deconstruct myths and stereotypes of Albania as a failed state that is mired in crime and corruption.

I was invited to speak on the Balkans at the “Austria and Turkey’s Neighbourhood Workshop” in Ankara on 21 April 2008. H.E Ali Babacan, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey and H.E Ursula Plassnik, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Austria were the keynote speaker of the seminar. Guests among my panel included Mr T. Schnoll, Head of Western Balkans Unit (AFM), Professor Turkes from METU, Ms Batur from the Daily Sabah and Ambassador Aksoy.

Read more on the event on ESI’s news pages.

In the seminar entitled “A European failure or European miracles? Enlargement stories from Bulgaria and Romania”, I gave a detailed analysis on the case of Bulgaria and its adhesion to the European Union, while my colleague Kristof Bender, Senior Analyst at ESI talked about the case of Romania. The presentation was followed by comments from Francois Frison-Roche, Romanian and Bulgarian Specialist of CNRS and the University of Paris.

Bulgaria – The long revolution

Romania – timisoara.com

I gave a presentation during the international symposium “Return to Europe – Talking Balkans”, organised by ERSTE Foundation and ORF RadioKulturhaus, the first season of the TV documentary “Balkan Express” was announced. This film series will be broadcast on 3sat (starting 27 April 2008) and ORF (autumn 2008).

It is based on ESI research and features many places, topics and people that have been subject of ESI reports. The stories were developed in cooperation with ESI analysts.

International representatives of politics, culture, business and science discussed the “Balkan concept” on 3 – 4 April 2008. In addition to exclusive clips from the documentary series, the programme also featured examples of video art from the region.

Speakers included, among others, Alfred Gusenbauer (Federal Chancellor of Austria), Erhard Busek (Special Coordinator, Stability Pact, Austria), Slavenka Drakulic (author, Croatia), Migjen Kelmendi (Journalist, Kosovo), Ivan Krastev (Political scientist, Centre for Liberal Strategies, Bulgaria), Tim Judah (journalist, BBC, The Economist, UK), Ivan Vejvoda (Executive Director, Balkan Trust for Democracy, Serbia), Alida Vracic (Director, Populari, Bosnia & Herzegovina), and Erion Veliaj (ESI Analyst, Albania).

More information on the participants can be found at the ERSTE Foundation’s website. Austrian quality daily Der Standard published an eight-page supplement on the documentary series.

I held a public lecture at The Red House in Sofia on EU soft power in the Balkans. Ever since the dramatic events in Kosovo in 1999, the European Union saw the EU membership prospect for the Balkan countries as a tool for stabilising the region. The “EU membership promise” has been perceived as an instrument of excercising soft power over a region that includes Turkey as well. With recent developments across the Balkans, is the EU soft power fading away?

My colleague Alexandra and attended a session of the EPC Balkans Task Force in Brussels, a group of experts assembled by the European Policy Centre. There, I spoke about the Bulgarian experience and recommended:

1. to encourage all WB countries to apply for EU membership and become candidates;
2. to begin screening in late 2008/early 2009;
3. to start negotiations with those that are ready. This will counteract the slow erosion of EU soft power in the region and produce the necessary momentum for the necessary reforms towards.

The next day, Alexandra and I attended a conference called “Five years after Thessaloniki” with Carl Bildt, Dimitri Rupel, Olli Rehn, Michael Leigh (Director-General Enlargement), Stefan Lehne (Director for the Western Balkans in the Council) and many others, and where I gave another presentation on the state of the Balkans. The background to this event was the Western Balkans Communication issued by the Commission the week before.

Since 1999, ESI has published a large number of reports on Bosnia-Herzegovina, many of which have created wider public debates about the state of the country.

During the past year, ESI and the Bosnian think tank Populari have taken a fresh look at Bosnian realities – from interethnic relations and dealing with war crimes to energy policy and education – focusing in particular on some regions devastated during the war in the early 1990s: Central Bosnia and Doboj in Republika Srpska. This research was supported by the Erste Foundation and by the Norwegian government. The event was supported by the Swedish Embassy.

Populari’s Alida Vračić and I presented the findings and their implications for future EU policy towards the country in the Bosnian Parliament. Discussants included Osman Topčagić (Director of the BiH Directorate for European Integration) and Alexandra Stiglmayer (ESI senior Analyst).

The event was widely reported on in Bosnian newspapers. There was also a lot of coverage on local TV channels. I gave a long interview about the research to Nezavisna Televizia from Banja Luka and to OBN in Sarajevo.

Gerald Knaus, Alida Vračić, Osman Topčagić, and Alexandra Stiglmayer

Gerald Knaus and journalists after the presentation