To illustrate how completely disoriented and lacking in strategic vision the EU’s policy towards the Balkans is, and how little it affects the harsh reality of the mountainous Balkans, one could find many examples. In BiH alone, there are plenty. Such theses should not be understood as an expression of the author’s Euroscepticism, but primarily as an expression of frustration of a Eurofanatic.
One need not look further than the current adoption of the Reform Agenda Growth Plan. Setting aside the criticism that the agenda, at least in the part concerning fundamental policies, has repackaged reforms that BiH has been failing to resolve for decades under EU conditionality patronage, such as the coordination mechanism issues, the Law on Courts, etc. That’s another painful topic, but here we’ll return to the fact that BiH is the only country that has failed to adopt the Reform Agenda among all Western Balkan countries.
Due to delays in adopting the agenda, BiH has already lost over one hundred million euros from the allocated slightly more than a billion, and by all indications will lose just as much by the end of September when the new deadline is set.
Simultaneously with the process of harmonizing the agenda, BiH managed to pay 111 million KM to an obscure company Viadukt, which has no employees and whose accounts are blocked based on an arbitration decision. Also, BiH, or rather RS, paid an even more obscure figure, Rashid Serdarov, 240 million KM for the buyout of the coal exploitation concession at the Ugljevik-East 2 site, as well as concessions for the construction and use of two thermal power blocks in Ugljevik. That is, the concession that the RS Government itself had given him.
Furthermore, the purchase of the “godfather’s building” for 100 million KM for the ITA headquarters is in its final phase, despite all information about obvious tender rigging, despite all evidence of epic-scale criminal activities during the building’s construction, and ultimately despite the BiH parliament’s conclusion to halt the procedure.
And that’s not the end. The audit report of FBiH Motorways reveals that contracts for construction and supervision of highway sections were changed multiple times through addendums regarding investment value increases and construction deadline extensions, resulting in a total increase of 255,530,360 EUR for just four sections.
Or who still remembers the infamous Prointer that received public contracts worth more than 300 million KM.
So what can the esteemed Marta Kos say to political leaders during her recent three-day visit, at least to those who found time to meet with her? That the EU will withhold another 100 million KM? That you won’t open negotiations? The only answer she could expect to that is now the cult retort of Bakir I., “so what?”
And what exactly do we need the Growth Plan or Reform Agenda for, when everything that grows is already growing… and should grow, and the only thing that keeps growing is the wealth of the ruling clique.
Those prone to irony and dark humor would say you surely aren’t doing reforms just for the money. Yes, but let’s first agree on who ‘we’ are.
One of the rare bright spots of Commissioner Kos’s visit is the announcement that 7 million euros will be approved for media and civil society in the next two years. This is undoubtedly important but it’s just patching up part of not just holes but craters created by USAID’s shutdown, and will only enable bare survival for both media and civil society to diligently inform citizens that everything that grows should grow…
P.S. The soundtrack for this blog, the song “Everything That Grows Wanted to Grow” which you should play while reading, was written by Duško Radović for the “Joy of Europe” event.
