The European Union (EU) does not reduce border management to their abolition, but rather moves, strengthens and redefines them, which is why, due to Europe's focus on migration over the last decade, the Western Balkans have become a European border zone, according to Florian Biber, director of the Center for Southeast European Studies.
Biber said this at the international conference "Borders in Southeast Europe: Geography or Imagination?", which opened in Podgorica on Friday, as part of the Joint History Readers project (www.jointhistory.net).
He said, at the panel "Theoretical Approach to Borders", that in conversations people often hear that the EU is eliminating borders and that they are disappearing, which is only part of the story.
"The EU also has many other functions when it comes to borders," Bieber pointed out.
As he said, it is about moving borders, not about them disappearing.
"What the EU is doing is not just removing borders, but moving, demarcating and re-establishing borders - in the sense that it is creating new borders, because every external border becomes stricter, much stronger, more powerful and more restrictive," Bieber stated.
He added that this also talks about the production of borders, citing the example that moving from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Croatia is no longer a move from one state to another, but a move into a wider political space.
"In this way, borders take on a completely new meaning that they didn't have before. And it's not just a symbolic change, but also an infrastructural one. It creates a need for control and management that didn't exist before," explained Biber.
As he said, a difference in meaning is also created, because these borders are no longer just national, but also "European borders".
According to Bieber, borders disappear, but they never completely disappear.
"Every time I travel from Slovenia to Austria, the border seems to disappear, but it's still there," Bieber said.
He explained that during the coronavirus pandemic, there was a big shock, when all countries suddenly introduced border controls in places where people were not used to them.
"Places where border controls once existed are no longer under police surveillance, but those locations can still be reactivated, so impossible or invisible borders suddenly become possible again," Biber added.
He said that the EU is also introducing new selection mechanisms, stating that it is no longer just about citizenship of a country, but is now a much broader category - European citizenship, which has significance at those borders.
"Very often, if you cross borders and don't look European, you will be stopped and checked," Bieber said.
As he stated, there is a very clear hierarchy of control – who should be stopped and controlled, and who should not.
"It shows the racial and identity hierarchies that these borders create and maintain," Bieber added.
He said that "elastic" borders are being created, an example of which is the migration reception center in Albania, built by the Italian government.
"This effectively transfers the Italian presence to Albania. As far as I know, no one has actually been there yet, or has been there very briefly, due to legal disputes initiated by Italian courts. But it is a classic example of creating borders within other territories," explained Biber.
According to him, without European border regimes, this would not be possible.
"It is part of the European 'border-making' that is affecting Southeastern Europe, creating new small enclaves or territories," Biber added.
He believes that the most important aspect is how, thanks to the European focus on migration over the last decade, the Balkans have become a European border zone.
"And here I am specifically talking about the Western Balkans - a space that carries great irony: it is actually an 'isolated island' or 'inner courtyard' because, although geographically and politically it is not part of the EU, it functions as an extra-European space within the EU," Biber stated.
As he said, migrants entering the EU via the Western Balkans "actually come from the EU", not by citizenship, but by direction of travel.
"It's a paradox - the Western Balkans have become a border zone within the EU itself," said Biber.
He pointed out that this had several important consequences.
"Although formally borders have become less important, in the Western Balkans they have become significantly more significant, because they have become more important for the EU as external borders, with the need to manage them, secure them and create new categories," said Biber.
Speaking about phantom borders, he cited the example of nationalist narratives, such as those about how some peoples are the "defenders of Europe", or anti-migrant narratives, or various other nationalist myths that glorify the idea of defending the Balkans from the East.
Kornelija Elis, Head of the Department of History at the Faculty of Philosophy in Ljubljana, speaking about occupation borders, said that a broader theoretical and historical understanding of this type of border is needed.
"These are borders that are not created in peace by states, but rather arise in the context of violence, military occupations, and the collapse of states," said Ellis.
As she stated, such borders are often seen as temporary and exceptional, because many of them did not even exist before they were suddenly drawn, often without any historical basis.
"Nevertheless, they leave traces on the territory, in the daily lives of the population, in collective memory, and shape future processes of demarcation," Ellis pointed out.
She emphasized that this is why people need to better understand the occupation borders.
Speaking about what happens when borders are not set by sovereign states, but by occupying armies, and when they do not divide two countries, but rather separate a people and a community, Ellis said that these borders are exceptional not only politically, but also spatially, because they create zones without law, where "brute force" reigns.
"They may seem temporary, but they often last much longer than one might think. They become phantom boundaries – although formally removed, they continue to shape people's behavior, thinking, and lives decades later," Ellis explained.
As she stated, these boundaries also affect the appearance of buildings and infrastructure.
"I am convinced that Slovenia is an excellent example for studying occupation borders, because during World War II it experienced one of the most extreme cases of territorial fragmentation," said Ellis, noting that in April 1941, Slovenia was divided by Nazi Germany, fascist Italy, Hungary, and the Independent State of Croatia.
She explained that each of these states then introduced its own law, administration, and repressive apparatus, so that the borders between them were not just lines, but represented different ideologies, policies, and war goals.
Ellis stated that many of these borders were not on the external border, but within Slovenia, separating cities, regions and families.
"An example is Ljubljana, in the center of Slovenia, which suddenly became a border city, which has never happened before and I hope it never will again," said Ellis.
She pointed out that these borders have not only changed the physical landscape, but also the lives of people, where the border has become an everyday condition of life.
According to Ellis, that border has been normalized in everyday life, but what could not be normalized was ethnocidal politics.
“The occupying forces attempted to reshape the territories they annexed – in some cases entire populations were expelled and replaced with German settlers,” Ellis said.
She explained that it is therefore not surprising that these borders did not disappear either with the end of the war, or after nationalist purges and migrations, or through reconstruction.
"Their effects are still present - in regional development, collective memory, voting and identities. In some regions, they have created long-term divisions in the memory of World War II and views on collaboration and resistance," Ellis said.
As she said, what began as a temporary wartime solution has become a long-term spatial reality.
"The case of Slovenia also shows that occupation borders are not footnotes to history, they are key mechanisms in shaping space, identity and society," concluded Ellis.
The Joint History Readers Project is implemented by the European Fund for the Balkans with financial support from the German Foreign Ministry.
The organization of the conference was supported by the Center for Civic Education.
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