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The Western Balkans the day after Covid-19 won’t be better

Alexandros P. Mallias, former Ambassador of Greece to the US and member of the International Advisory Council of the Greek House Davos, said in remarks to the Greek House Davos/Thessaloniki Forum June 10:

The Balkan region will not look much different after Covid-19 unless there develops a genuine sense of political accountability. Politics is meant to serve, not the other way around. Political egotism, nepotism and corruption adversely affect citizen expectations throughout the region. The region’s politicians –some at least—appear failing their countries, their peoples, and themselves.

This can change. The remedies include:

• Enhanced involvement of the younger generations, which need opportunities to participate. Politics should not be the privilege of self-styled elites.
• Independent judiciaries, which are needed to hold politicians accountable. In much of the Balkans the courts are subject to political influence.

In addition, change will require the region to rid itself of other endemic infections, especially unreliable, aggressive, and authoritarian politics. The processes of NATO and EU accession offer appropriate and calibrated sticks and carrots. Aristotle put it well in The Nicomachean Ethics: “impose punishments and penalties upon malefactors and bestow honors on those doing fine actions.”

Proposed changes in borders, and associated forced exodus of populations, could renew conflict in the Balkans once Covid-19 is gone. Such proposals are now circulated without names attached, as no one wants to own their paternity. But behind closed doors key political figures in Western Balkan countries have contemplated the idea. International players even appeared to be backing it, though denying authorship.

Such proposals would open Pandora’s box, which cannot be easily close. They will be used as alibis for malfeasance in the Caucasus, Crimea, and elsewhere. Border changes start with a known beginning but risk a hazardous end. The EU, US, and states of the region should rule out land and population swaps in the Western Balkans, lest the end of Covid-19 initiate an even less controllable contagion.