The Open Balkan resists challenges: Economic cooperation is a salutary formula for political wounds

The three countries that, for now, make up the Open Balkan initiative, Serbia, Albania. and North Macedonia, have different positions on numerous political issues - from Kosovo, and membership in NATO, to the imposing sanctions on Russia, but this does not prevent them from developing economic cooperation, which will, according to announcements, soon result in the cancellation of work permits within this initiative, which will be the basis for further development of relations.

Irreconcilable political positions fall into the background, when the issues of greater trade exchange and easier circulation of goods, services, capital, and people, which lead to a better standard of living for citizens, are opened, and analysts point out that economic cooperation is the "salutary formula", as an attempt to heal political wounds.

The economy cannot close those wounds by itself, but it can highlight what real life is and what is really important to citizens.

Perhaps the best example of this is today's European Union, which was created based on economic cooperation after the Second World War, so today's political alliance, in fact, started as the European Community for Coal and Steel, and then as the European Economic Community.

Analyst Dusan Janjic tells Kosovo Online that the secret of why ideas about economic cooperation, such as the Open Balkan, persist is precisely that they represent a salutary formula and are not political.

"The secret of why this idea of changing names is maintained, Mini Schengen, Open Balkan, maybe the name will change again, is precisely that it is not political. Politicians are its initiators and support it. It relies on what was a salutary formula for Europe after the Second World War," Janjic said.

The Open Balkan, he adds, makes sense when it is based on the cooperation of the participating countries in the economy, in the development of infrastructure, as well as in the field of energy.

He points out that this type of relationship between the countries of the Western Balkans is supported by the US, which, he recalls, expressed its willingness to finance and invest in development projects during the Ohrid agreement between Serbia and Kosovo.

"The message is that, when political disagreements were resolved, the countries of the Western Balkans could count on massive investments in infrastructure, energy, and the development of foreign trade," Janjic said.

In order to clarify that economic relations and exchanges are influenced by politics, he recalls that the trade exchange reached 750 million euros until Ramush Haradinaj introduced taxes, and after that, Albin Kurti's policy of reciprocity.

He concluded that the economy was the main goal of the Open Balkan and that the politicians and leaders of the participating countries had supported it, showing openness to a different point of view than the political one.

"Politics has enormous power, especially in societies that have not yet been fully privatized, such as the societies of the Western Balkans. Where the free economy has not worked in the full sense, the power of the state is great, the economy is weak and it is dependent on the budget and politicians. So that's the secret. The Open Balkan cannot succeed unless a political consensus is created and a political vanguard that is powerful and wants cooperation is not created," the analyst assesses.

He also warns that it is not enough for the leaders of Kosovo, Serbia, Montenegro, and others to agree on economic cooperation, but that there should be a consensus at the level of the international community.

He explains that no matter how much the West supports peace and cooperation in the Western Balkans; some countries do not allow a competitive market to form, thereby protecting their own interests.

"On the example of energy and the formation of an energy community supported by the US, we see, however, that Germany is very skeptical about it. It is more convenient for them to impose green standards on us and exclude competition that could be the production of electricity from, for example, lignite. They are ready to support one market and one cooperation in the Western Balkans, but not the creation of powerful production capacities. So not mining, not energy, not serious industry," he said.

He believes that such situations could be overcome if the political leaders of the Western Balkans unite and, with the support of America, offer resistance, which, he estimates, is not at all easy.

According to Janjic, in order for the countries in the Balkans to become economically closer and more connected, they need large investments by multinational companies whose headquarters are in countries that are independent of European calculations - the US, South Korea, and Japan.

He reminds that the US had the idea of connecting the countries of old Yugoslavia and Albania, just as under the influence of Washington, and Churchill had the idea of a united Europe, and concludes that all ideas about connecting the continent into one federation are actually American in origin.

"The Open Balkan has the possibility to succeed if the leadership of Serbia and other member countries decide in which sectors they will give priority to the interests of development and great power, and in which they will give priority to the interests of corruption. For example, when it comes to infrastructure, you can give preference to those who will be very efficient and get the job done, as is the case with the American-Turkish company that is building the Moravian Corridor, or you will give preference to French and domestic companies that make big profits and politicians while the works are being carried out slowly," Janjic pointed out.

The analyst says that political leaders and the elite in the region, if they want development initiatives and programs to come to life, should put corruption within tolerable frameworks and prioritize development interests.

"Without an agreement, that each of these countries treats the Open Balkan as a specific way of 'their share' of reconstruction and construction, primarily in production, infrastructure and energy, that initiative will not succeed," Janjic concluded.

Adviser to the president of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, Nenad Djurdjevic, believes that economic cooperation cannot heal political wounds, but it can "create a precondition for normality and show what real life is and what is really important to people."

"If you look at a public opinion survey in normal and peaceful circumstances, the first thing citizens look at are existential issues, questions of uncertainty, worries about unemployment... These are things that worry citizens. So economic cooperation creates a precondition for normality and shows that things can work if there is political will and a process," Djurdjevic said.

He warns that political processes can destroy even the best economic cooperation, as evidenced, he says, by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
We have witnessed, he adds, how difficult it was for the EU to separate itself from Russia in terms of economic connectivity.

"Economic cooperation flourishes, expands, and develops if there are political foundations. Politics can improve them, but, unfortunately, it can also destroy them," the advisor to the president of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce concluded.

As confirmation for his thesis, he cited the example of Yugoslavia, where in the 80s there had been, as he said, good economic development and relations that could contribute to EU membership, however, there had been a split between the states "along political lines."

Djurdjevic believes that the economic dynamics in the region should be improved, which, in his opinion, is full of unused and unexplored potential and opportunities.

"It will contribute to bringing citizens closer to face their role in those wars and in creating those political wounds. But the main responsibility lies with politics, political parties, leaders, who set that tone," Djurdjevic said.

However, he points out that the situation in the region at the political level has started to change in recent years, to which the public has also adapted, and, for example, the visit of Albanian leaders to Serbia has become a completely normal thing.

He referred to the tensions in 2014 when Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama came to Belgrade and recalled that it had been questionable whether the visit should be postponed.

"Today, after six or seven years, we have a situation of incredible development of relations at all levels between Serbia and Albania. Above all, politics was crucial here. Recognizing the necessity for cooperation opened the way for economy and business, and then, of course, business creates some new channels and connections," Djurdjevic said.

According to him, the political framework is crucial in the relations between the states in the region because it sets the legislative framework and is in charge of the public sphere.

He considers it a positive step that the political leaders of Serbia, North Macedonia, and Montenegro supported development cooperation and the Open Balkan, but that this initiative will be realized in its full capacity when the other economies of the region join it.

"The Open Balkan will really be open when all six economies participate and when the barriers, which are primarily motivated by political reasons, are removed. It won't happen overnight, but the Open Balkan showed that it was possible if you sat at the same table and built mutual trust, which was further transferred to the administrations. The next step is to solve the absorption capacities of those administrations, in order to implement everything that was agreed upon," Djurdjevic said.

When it comes to Pristina's accession to the Open Balkan, Djurdjevic says that it is necessary to work on building trust.

"Changing the narrative is important, as is building trust. I think that these agreements from Brussels and Ohrid create formal preconditions for Kosovo to enter that regional initiative,” Djurdjevic said.

He also commented on the change of president in Montenegro, pointing out that the government in which the new president of Montenegro, Jakov Milatovic, once had been, was in favor of entering the Open Balkan.

The adviser to the president of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce believes that the key questions are "how we want to see the Open Balkan, whether as an initiative of all six participants of the Western Balkans" and "what is the final goal".

"In my opinion, the Open Balkan should create the preconditions for a harmonization and raising to a higher level of cooperation, which will make us all members of the single market of the EU. If the goal of the Open Balkan is membership in the EU, then I don't see why all six economies would not participate in that initiative," he said.

According to Djurdjevic, the biggest challenge of the Open Balkan initiative is the implementation of reached agreements between the three signatories of the initiative.

He assessed that between the three signatory countries of the initiative, there was an imbalance of administrations and they failed to fully agree on the implementation of the agreed administrations.

He also emphasizes that it is a challenge for the countries of the Open Balkan that all the administration and agreements that are agreed upon within the initiative should be harmonized with EU criteria and principles so that companies from this area can cooperate with foreign partners without hindrance.

"It is very important for our companies, which are the biggest beneficiaries of those agreements within the Open Balkan. These are companies that already work according to some EU norms. It is simply important that this framework regarding food safety, the release of food and other products into circulation is supported and preserved," Djurdjevic said.

He reiterated that one of the key challenges for the Open Balkan was segmentation within the region and that for now only three members from the Western Balkans had joined the Open Balkan.

"The fragmentation that we currently see in the Western Balkans due to political dynamics, different levels of negotiations with the EU, political disagreements primarily at the level of Kosovo and Serbia, i.e. now the uncertainty of the implementation of the last agreement, is the framework in which the Open Balkan initiative is located. And for every regional initiative, including the Open Balkan, a prerequisite is the trust of political leaders and a partnership and stable atmosphere," he said.

The Serbian Chamber of Commerce has repeatedly pointed out the need for a systematic approach among the countries in the region and had proposed some great solutions, Djurdjevic pointed out and expressed hope that cooperation at the systemic level in the region would rise to a higher level.

Economist Safet Gerxhaliu believes that the biggest problem in the Balkans lies in the fact that one cannot talk about economic problems without political connotations.

"We thought as the Chamber, when I was the president of the Kosovo Chamber of Commerce, to take as a model for solving those problems the Rome agreement from 1957, where simply economic cooperation is the key factor in the rapprochement of people and states within the framework of the EU. In that context, I think that the Western Balkans have no perspective," Gerxhaliu said.

The region needs, he points out, cooperation, a better economic perspective, and in that context, he concludes, dialogue is of crucial importance.

He believes that the common denominator for solving economic barriers and progress is political stability.

"Unfortunately, we want and seek that political stability and to negotiate, it is good while negotiating. The economic sector in the Balkans, especially in the relationship between Kosovo and Serbia, has taken a step ahead of politics. We must support regional cooperation, the economic sector, we must understand that politics has barriers, and that trade is like water, it finds its own direction," Gerxhaliu said.

We must start implementing agreements, implementing all agreements, projects within the framework of regional cooperation, in order to restore the perspective for a better tomorrow, says the economist, recalling that precisely because of the inconsistency, the results of 73 regional initiatives launched since 1999 were missing.

Gerxhaliu warns that one of the biggest problems of the countries of the Western Balkans is the departure of young and professional staff abroad, and that as a result the development opportunities of the entire region are decreasing.

"No one will understand the reality, that precisely because of the lack of political stability in the Balkans, we have become 'runaway states' and that is the worst thing, and no one will admit that, that even though we had the covid-19 pandemic, the economic pandemic, today we have, and this applies to the entire Western Balkans, a 'demographic pandemic' because young and smart people are leaving. So the question arises, what the perspective will be if they remain without the people and without the youth," he said.