October 3, 2006—In 1989, the year of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the former Yugoslavia was anticipating the prospect of membership in the European Union. Yugoslav citizens enjoyed higher per capita incomes than their poorer neighbors in Eastern Europe and also had the ability to travel easily to Western Europe, something those behind the Iron Curtain could only dream of. And to the south, Greece had just become a new EU member a few years earlier and was paving the way for its neighbor to the north to enter the Union.  | Southeast Europe |
But as so often happens in history, a turn of events intervened and a series of wars and conflicts split Yugoslavia apart, causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, and setting back the hopes and aspirations of many who had come so close to membership in a growing EU. Today, 17 years later, the Southeast European neighborhood has changed. Slovenia, the northern-most Yugoslav republic, joined the EU several years ago along with neighbors Hungary, the Czech and Slovak Republics, and Poland. Romania and Bulgaria are set to become EU members on January 1, 2007 while Croatia, Turkey and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia are in the waiting room of EU candidates. For many in the former Yugoslav republics and Albania today, the main goal is to pick up where they left off years ago, make up for lost time, and strive for membership in the growing EU. Every country in the region is a young democracy at some stage of talks with Brussels about potentially joining the Union, and the World Bank, for its part, has focused its assistance on helping those countries achieve a more prosperous future in the EU. To build on this goal, parliamentarians from Southeast Europe and Turkey gathered this weekend outside Athens and agreed to work together more closely with each other and with the World Bank to create a “common economic space” in Southeast Europe. After a few days of intense discussion with officials from the Bank, IMF, and European institutions, the group decided to set up the newest branch of the Parliamentary Network on the World Bank (PNoWB) to work together on common development issues.  | Nikos Christodoulakis |
Building a Parliamentary Network in Southeast Europe “We welcome the founding of the Southeast Europe branch of the PNoWB,” said Greek MP and former finance minister Nikos Christodoulakis, who co-chaired the meeting. “In the Balkans, governments and politicians have not been used to frequently exchanging ideas and a lot of conflicts and misunderstandings have occurred on several occasions. Today, communication and consensus building will help to spread the need for reform and cooperation in this area. The European perspective is the common base for enhancing a political dialogue on a cross-country agenda that includes upgrading infrastructure, securing energy supply, creating more and better jobs, and increasing factor mobility and co-integration.” Christodoulakis and the nearly 40 other parliamentarians from Southeast Europe focused on several issues that are critical to the region’s development, including good governance, energy, trade, transport, labor markets and immigration.  | Shigeo Katsu |
The challenge for the region is to not only converge with the EU but also to compete in the global marketplace, said Shigeo Katsu, World Bank Vice-President for Europe and Central Asia, adding that the conference produced a lot of good ideas on how to move forward on key development issues and how to work more effectively with parliamentarians. “Because by our Articles of Agreement, governments are our main counterparts, and the Bank usually has much more contact with the executive branch of governments than with parliaments. But it is clear that we need to work much more closely with parliaments, who play a big role in the development of their countries. While parliamentarians have the responsibility to govern and lead the way, we at the World Bank can support their reform efforts more effectively by sharing our knowledge, research and best practices. There is a shared responsibility among governments, legislators and development partners to communicate difficult reform efforts to citizens.” Several parliamentarians welcomed the Bank’s interest in working with them and said unlike governments which have large ministries and staffs, parliamentarians often lack the capacity and time to study reforms and regulations that the governments presents to them. The more the Bank and other donors can provide parliamentarians with new research and new data, the better job parliaments can do in supporting needed reforms. “We as parliamentarians need to get together and share experiences more,” said Alush Gashi, an MP from Kosovo. “It is a good idea that the World Bank gets down to the grassroots like this instead of just dealing with the governments. In this way, we parliamentarians can support our governments and citizens more effectively.” A Common Economic Space Southeast Europe has improved its track record of economic reform in recent years with growth reaching respectable levels. But while important steps have been taken, much more needs to be done, especially with reducing the high levels of unemployment in the region.  | | Orsalia Kalantzopoulos |
“I would not say the glass is half-empty in Southeast Europe—I would say the glass is half-full,” said Orsalia Kalantzopoulos, World Bank Country Director for Southeast Europe and co-organizer of the event. “Our job at the World Bank is to support these countries’ accession to the EU and prepare the ground for EU financing and investment. The EU clearly is the future for the region. The faster they can approach the EU, the sooner the Bank can turn its attention to other issues of a more global nature, such as climate change and clean energy. So the question is how can we position the region in the center of the EU and not as a black hole in Europe?” The Southeast Europe branch of the PNoWB established this weekend is the newest chapter of the organization. Created in early 2000 as a small, informal network, PNoWB has grown to include members from some 110 countries. The Network has expanded through the creation of four national and regional chapters in India, East Africa, Japan and the Middle East/North Africa. Several parliamentarians noted this weekend that it was about time for the Balkans to set up a PNoWB chapter and create the “common political space” among themselves that would help lay the groundwork for a “common economic space.” “Southeast European countries have undergone deep and at times rather difficult transitions and reforms,” said Greek MP Kyriakos Mitsotakis. “But tangible achievements can today be clearly seen throughout the region. International organizations must continue supporting these efforts to further consolidate cooperation in sectors such as energy and transportation, and to foster an economic environment attractive to foreign investors.” For its part, Greece hosted this weekend's meeting with the aim of extending the 60 years of “unprecedented growth” of the EU to the Balkans. Greek investment into the region has grown to 8 billion euros while immigration from the region to Greece has provided the region with badly needed remittances. “The Balkans belong to the European family,” said Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis. “That is why it is important for parliamentarians from all over the region to discuss solutions to issues we all face in Southeast Europe, so that we can build a common economic space that can bring greater prosperity and a brighter future for the regions people. Greece is committed to the regions European future and is determined to do all it can to build a more affluent and stable Southeast Europe.” Contributed by Andrew Kircher, ECCU4.
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