After becoming independent, the Republic of Macedonia consistently strived towards obtaining its membership in the European Union. The consecutive Macedonian governments implemented reforms aimed at meeting the Copenhagen criteria, which were appreciated by the EU. In 2005, FYROM was granted the status of a candidate country. Unfortunately, due to the unresolved dispute with Greece concerning the country’s name and the strained relations with Bulgaria, the starting date of the accession negotiations has not been set yet, even despite positive recommendations issued by the European Commission. Macedonian politicians are no longer standing the test of time and are beginning to abandon European standards.
On 17th February 2008, the parliamentary body of the temporary authorities of Kosovo adopted a Declaration of Independence and proclaimed that Kosovo should be recognized as an “independent and sovereign country”. At present, 106 countries recognize Kosovo as an independent country (as for 2nd July, 2014). The political dilemmas of the countries of the international community, including the requirement of a legal assessment of the consequences of the unilateral Declaration of Independence of the Kosovo Republic, referred, in fact, to the need to take a stance towards the meaning of and the mutual relations between the basic rules and principles and the institutions of modern international law (ius inter gentes), in particular the problem of setting a precedent in terms of intrastate and international law, respecting the rules of the territorial integrity of states, and issues such as the autonomy of nations, the institution of territorial secession and the recognition of states by other states.
Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) shared a similar fate in former Yugoslav conflicts and international development on the subject of nation building, international intervention and international relations. The two countries now are making an incremental progress towards the EU integration. However, challenges remain in many aspects, including the regional cooperation. This paper aims to look at the Kosovo and Bosnia & Herzegovina relations in last decade or so with the objective to conduct an analysis of the current developments in the region. This paper looks at the political, economic and security cooperation as an amalgamation of inter-dependent relations in the post-Yugoslav context, with all the ethno-political challenges and geo-political burdens.
The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina that broke out in the eve of post-Cold War era has brought to the international agenda the issue of Bosniak identity, rights and future political and state representation. The security of Bosniak identity, built up on religious and cultural aspects, was confronted in military terms with nationalistic ethnic approach of Serbs and Croats. The aim of this paper is to analyze the roots, history and evolution of Bosniak identity as challenged by radical Islamic ideology that emerged with the conflict. The role of radical Islamism in shaping the security of post-conflict Bosnia will also be described. Foreign assistance or help from various Muslim states, non-governmental organizations as well as from radical Islamic militant groups put the question of the Bosniak islamization and radicalization into discourse. The security and structure of the Bosnia and Herzegovina was also challenged by radical Islamic ideologies and their militant representations. After the September 11th the Islamic terrorism was a target of international war and that has changed Bosnia and Herzegovina in a great manner.
The article is devoted to the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and its impact on the European security. Particular emphasis has been placed on the recent history of the state, including the Balkan wars taking place in the end of twenty century, as well as on the resulting from it complex internal situation, without any doubts influencing the perception of Bosnia and Herzegovina as not fully democratic state, struggling with many problems of political, social, as well as religious and ethnic nature. Not without consequence for this situation is the attitude of neighboring countries – Serbia and Croatia. Policy pursued by the governments of these countries has a huge influence on the actions taken by the national minorities living in the regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which has an impact on the internal situation of the country. All these activities contribute to internal stability and external position of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The aim of this work is to present the Bosnian visions of Europe as well as its expectations concerning the membership in the European Union which seems to be an important issue as almost half of the Bosnian society is Islamic. Bosniak people believe their religion, or rather its non-orthodox version, will be accepted easier by the West. They see themselves as mediators between two civilisations able to show other Muslims that their faith does not stand in contradiction to European values. The citizens of the Bosnia and Herzegovina are in great majority in favour of accessing the EU. They treat this possibility as a chance to raise the level of life; to strengthen the social guarantees; to curb corruption and to improve the judiciary system. Those collective hopes come together with a grudge towards Europe for being passive during the war but also for lack of power of the international administration.
This article proposes an approach to ethnopolitics in the Balkans based on the law of uneven and combined development. It assumes a significant role of economy (and control over economy) in social and political development of a society across the ages. Subsequently, the ethnopolitics of the Balkans should be perceived through the prism of historic development of the political solutions to arising economic questions. In effect, we recognize several models of cultural division of labour. These models provide varying levels of economic (in)dependence of minorities from state-authorities. Our claims, however, are based on the conviction that these institutions and models are focused mostly on meeting demands of the minorities’ leaders, not necessarily of the minorities themselves. Consequently, political and economic interests took precedence over human rights and democratic values.
Special interest is paid to the economic performance of regional clusters in the Polish economy. The main research questions are: what characterizes the regional clusters in Poland and what are the main tendencies in cluster development? The purpose of this research is to analyse the importance of clusters and their influence on employment growth. The analysis is based on the theoretical framework of the cluster development and experiences in some old and new EU Member States. The research shows that clusters in EU 27 and Poland differ in many dimensions: the point at which they arise, the type of products and services they offer, their stage of development, and the business environment that surrounds them.
