I briefed on the EFT investment in Doboj, an official from the Stability Pact spoke about the EU/Southeastern Europe Energy Community, and Luan Shlaku from OSF Kosovo warned of the numerous problems with regard to the “Kosovo C 2100MW” project (a future third lignite thermo power plant in Kosovo.

I gave a presentation advocating the abolishment of the visa regime for the Western Balkans to COWEB, the Council working group with Western Balkan experts from the EU member states.

The Balkans in 2007 is a very different region from the Balkans in 1997:

• there is no evidence that a country like Bosnia is “at the centre” of transnational organised crime, as is sometimes argued.
• most outsider’s images about anarchy in Albania are outdated.
• introducing visa-free travel for Macedonians (2 million people), Montenegrins (600,000), Bosnians (less than 4 million people) or 3 million Albanians is a small risk and in other cases (Bulgaria and Romania) the importance of this step for their overall (successful) transformation is unquestioned.

I concluded by suggesting to put all countries of the Western Balkans on the “white Schengen list” immediately with an asterix (*). The same was done for Romania in 2001. Under this proposal the asterix would indicate that once conditions defined in country-specific road maps were met, visa free travel would follow.

This would send a powerful political message at a moment when the EU needs maximum leverage in the region.

Read more on this presentation in the Rumeli Observer Blog entry “Peddling ideas around Schuman”

 Border fence between Albania and Macedonia

Where is the Balkans heading on the eve of the Slovenian presidency and intense discussions whether there should be an “Adriatic enlargement” of NATO in 2008? Do Europeans – including Austrians – fully grasp how much the region has changed?

ERSTE Stiftung and ESI jointly organised a public discussion hosted by the Haus der Musik in Vienna where Kristof and I presented new ESI research on Albania, Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The presentation included clips and the trailer of the most ambitious TV documentary project on the region undertaken in the recent years: a 10 part documentary to be broadcast on 3sat in early 2008.

This was followed by a panel representing a new generation of Balkan activists: ESI analyst Erion Veliaj (until recently MJAFT, Albania) and Alida Vracic (Populari, Bosnia) discussed realities and myths about the Western Balkans.

Gerald Knaus, Alida Vracic, Erion Veliaj, and Kristof Bender

View of the audience

Barcelona – Museum of Modern Art (next to Cidob) Narcis Serra (president of Cidob)

At the invitation of Cidob, the leading foreign policy think tank in Catalonia, and its president Narcis Serra, former Spanish minister of defence and deputy prime minister, I give a breakfast presentation on the future of the Balkans in the wonderful old building Cidob occupies in the centre of Barcelona, close to the new museum of modern art.

The content: an overview of recent developments in Serbia, Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina and discuss what is required for successful Europeanisation and eventual EU accession of the whole region in 2008.

See also the entry Las Ramblas in November (Barcelona)

I presented ESI’s research on recent economic and societal trends in Turkey, in particular the rapidly changing reality of Turkish women at an event jointly organised with the August Bebel Institut, the AK Frauenpolitische Bildung im Bildungswerk Berlin der Heinrich Böll Stiftung, and the Berlin Istanbul Network Kultur-Wissen-Stadt (BINKWS).

Inn this presentation, I talked on Turkey’s potential for accession to the EU, social and economic developments, the recent (legal) revolution of women’s rights, the German debate about Turkey and the role of the military. I also pointed out that these changes cannot only to be attributed to AKP’s legal reforms but are part of a wider democratisation process of Turkish society at large.

Berlin Radio Multikulti covered this event: “Has AKP’s view of women changed?” (Turkish only).