After the day before yesterday, the representatives of the National Assembly of Serbia Snežana Paunović and Uglješa Marković left the inter-parliamentary conference "Benefits of the Berlin Process: a special focus on the common regional market" which was held in Petrovac in Montenegro with the explanation that the parliamentary delegations of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania and Kosovo were inappropriate attacks on Aleksandar Vučić made the idea of a conference pointless, it is clear that something much bigger than a specific conference collapsed. It is true that this became clear even earlier, but after everything that happened around the passing of the UN resolution on the genocide in Srebrenica, it disarmed even the greatest optimists.
Thus, the idea that economic interest is enough without political changes and an honest confrontation with the past to reconnect the region has collapsed. And now it's not even a key question whether the Open Balkans served only as a cover for the settlement of two nationalisms, and the Berlin Process as a consolation prize for the European Union, because both have essentially ended.
Although in the first statement the Serbian parliamentarians did not specify what exactly it was about, in the one that followed the day after, they concluded that Vučić was accused of personally putting pressure on politicians from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, that they insisted on discussing the status of Kosovo and the politics of Serbia, and that there, at that type of meeting, there was neither place nor time for those topics and claims that were completely out of place. Or more specifically: "Under the circumstances that the primary goal of the Conference was supposed to be the improvement of regional cooperation, the establishment of a common regional market and the improvement of the quality of life of citizens in the region, and that it was misused for cheap political, demagogic, untrue and unprofessional presentations, committee presidents Snežana Paunović and Uglješa Marković left the Conference".
And now, regardless of their assessment of whether the attacks and theses are misplaced or not, Paunović and Marković are essentially right about the primary goal of the conference.
However, that is exactly the problem. Because I guess it has finally become clear that the improvement of regional cooperation cannot come only through a common market and raising the quality of life if there is no honest conversation about the traumatic past, fundamental changes in policies from the nineties, and if we do not at least minimally respect each other and stop publicly pushing ideas and projects that they systematically produce tensions and destroy trust between states and peoples. Yes, I am primarily referring to the All-Serbian Parliament and its messages, which does not mean that any idea of cooperation is not being undermined by Kosovo Prime Minister Kurti with all the refusals to talk and other moves he is making.
It is extremely naive, in fact, to believe that economics paves the way for politics, when it has always been the other way around. It is additionally naive to do so from our situation and knowing our recent past. Well, if it was about the economy and improving the quality of life, none of this would have happened, instead the federal government of Ante Marković would have served several mandates in a row and we would have been like Yugoslavia in the European Union a long time ago.
Moreover, the economy and economic exchange, albeit the black one, functioned perfectly during the entire war, but the first major opening of economic cooperation came after the real political changes in 2000.
Now, the fact that people from the international community, captivated by the eternal faith in capitalism and the power of free trade, do not see this, I can still understand. But the fact that local actors have been pretending for so many years, and some of them even seem sincere in all of this, that it is possible to keep silent about the elephant in the room and that it will bring the region together, is now becoming ridiculous.
And regardless of the fact that I know that the enthusiasm for the European Union in the countries of the region that have not yet joined it, which are all except Slovenia and Croatia, has long since subsided, regardless of the fact that this organization of countries shows a whole series of organizational and democratic deficits , the only way that remains as a way for the region to really get closer again, is membership in the European Union, while meeting at least the minimum standards that are expected.
Yes, there is also a theoretical possibility of catharsis and self-awareness of local societies about the crimes that were committed in their name, and they consciously or unconsciously supported them, but that is really in the realm of theory.
Therefore, any real progress in this matter, and the most realistic seems to be some kind of imminent entry of Montenegro into the European Union, would mean more than all the Berlin processes and the Open Balkans. And that is much more to the EU than to domestic politicians.
Bonus video:
