The European Union is going against the grain. The political and financial efforts it has deployed over the past twenty years to advance the rule of law in the Balkans are struggling to bear fruit. In a report made public on January 10, the European Court of Auditors estimates that this assistance had only “Little impact” on the substantive reforms required to deal with the problems of concentration of power, corruption and organized crime, non-independence of the judiciary, violation of human rights and obstruction of freedom of expression.
The finding is severe. However, the EU is the main provider of aid in the region: from 2014 to 2020, 700 million euros were devoted to it. Respect for the rule of law is one of the priority areas on the way to the accession of new members to the EU. North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Albania are respectively candidates since 2005, 2010, 2012 and 2014. Bosnia and Herzegovina applied in 2016, and Kosovo in the same year signed an agreement of stabilization and association.
Operation “Clean hands” in Albania
Analyzing the aid programs over the 2014-2020 period, the Court of Auditors observes that progress has certainly been made, but that it remains generally limited, and above all of a technical and operational nature. Their durability is, moreover, difficult to ensure.
Only Albania and North Macedonia record a certain amount of progress considered “Satisfactory”, in particular as regards the functioning of justice and the fight against corruption. A vast “clean hands” operation was thus carried out within the Albanian judiciary: some 800 judges had to undergo a process of verification of their integrity which cost several dozen of them their posts.
→ READ. In Albania, a “clean hands” operation in European colors
Attempts to interfere with the functioning of justice in Albania nonetheless remain “A matter of concern”, underlines the report which also points to the sharp decline in the country of freedom of expression. In Serbia, due to the pressures they are under, judges have even asked not to rule on cases involving politicians.
Civil society organizations muzzled
Civil society organizations remain muzzled in most of the countries concerned, except in North Macedonia and Kosovo, where the report’s authors note a slight improvement. The EU has failed on this point, they add, by providing insufficient support to these organizations dedicated to the respect of the rule of law. However, the lack of progress in this area is due, among other things, to the marginalization of civil society.
The EU has not made sufficient use of the weapon of conditionality: the suspension of aid for violations of fundamental principles such as democracy, the rule of law and human rights. And it has not been able to find measures to remedy the weakness of administrative capacities, to promote reforms, and above all to fight effectively against the manifest lack of political will of local authorities, the main obstacle to developments.
→ ANALYSIS. In Kosovo, the anti-corruption left takes the helm of the country
In 2018, the European Commission had already recognized in its report on enlargement, pointing to these countries “Obvious symptoms of state capture, including links to organized crime and corruption at all levels of government and administration, as well as the significant entanglement of public and private interests.” “
“The governments of the Western Balkans have managed to combine a formal commitment to democracy and European integration with informal authoritarian practices”, notes the report. Which ends on a positive note, however: in Montenegro and Kosovo, the former elites clinging to power for decades were swept away by the ballot box in 2020 and 2021.
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