Civil society plays a central role in monitoring and evaluating the progress of Western Balkan governments in the fight against organized crime and corruption. The non-governmental sector, however, remains isolated, as regional governments continue to be reluctant to cooperate.
In the Western Balkans, corruption appears to be driven by elites and organized crime activities are believed to be closely linked to public sector administration. The regional fight against corruption is not only about achieving better economic growth, but also aims to have a positive impact on many political and societal aspects, including the proper functioning of democratic institutions. In fact, corruption has a detrimental impact on the overall socio-economic well-being of citizens in the region.
Civil society has long monitored and investigated government accountability for organized crime and corruption in the Western Balkans. In the fight against corruption, it therefore has a fundamental role to play by verifying to what extent the results of Western Balkan governments in the fight against corruption and organized crime correspond to their commitments.
This is why at the recent 2019 Western Balkans Summit, held in Poznań, Poland (July 4-5), the importance of government cooperation with non-governmental organizations in policy debates was reiterated by all parties stakeholders, including Western Balkan leaders, who said he supported collaboration with expert groups and that “the responsibility for building resilience to corruption lies with multiple public authorities, the private sector and Civil society “.
The theme of the fight against corruption within the Berlin Process (an initiative aimed at boosting regional cooperation between Western Balkan states and guiding their European integration) is nothing new. In July 2018, five of the six Western Balkans (WB6) countries expressed their continued commitment to fighting corruption by announcing anti-corruption pledges. Later, Serbia joined the chorus of voices in 2019. These commitments were ambitious and far-reaching, but words, no matter how positive, cannot end corruption and other forms of organized crime. What is needed is to give civil society a strong and independent role in guiding the region’s long-term anti-corruption efforts by assessing government performance.
This year, the theme of the fight against corruption was again on the agenda of the Poznan summit. With the aim of bridging the gap between government agencies and civil society and initiating a dialogue on how to revisit anti-corruption commitments, the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime was invited to participate in the Forum of civil society summit (held on July 4) as part of a panel on the theme “The fight against corruption as a first condition for economic growth”. During the session, civil society representatives from the region expressed their strong commitment to closely monitoring their governments’ progress in combating crime and corruption, and expressed the need to seriously review independent government commitments on the way forward.
As was the case during a previous preparatory meeting in March 2019, the panel was organized as part of the Global Initiative program. Civil society observatory to combat organized crime in South-Eastern Europewhich brings together representatives of civil society from the Western Balkans with the aim of strengthening local cooperation in the fight against organized crime and corruption.
During the session, the May 2019 report of the Global Initiative “Organized crime hotspots in the Western Balkans: local vulnerabilities in a regional context” provided an evidence-based basis for examining the local crime ecosystem that enables the spread of organized crime and corruption in the region. Local anti-corruption experts examined the importance of the 2018 anti-corruption commitments and what has been achieved since. The commitments, announced in preparation for the London Summit of the Berlin Process in 2018, were mostly part of countries’ national anti-corruption frameworks. However, it was with some pessimism that one of the panelists said: “We have seen many anti-corruption and anti-crime strategies, many promises and commitments in the region, but nothing ever changes. » Civil society was not consulted during the drafting of the
commitments, and most were not translated into local languages.
The Berlin process has shown that the fight against corruption is fundamental for the development of the Western Balkans. Yet few concrete steps have been taken to review the commitments of regional governments.
In order to achieve measurable results on the way forward, it is necessary that this fight be carried out as a joint effort, with dialogue between policy makers and representatives of civil society. The importance of involving civil society in monitoring the Western Balkans anti-corruption commitments has also been supported by the UK government, given that the anti-corruption commitments were initially presented at the 2018 London Summit.
In his opening speech to the summit, Adam Gardner, head of the Department of Serious and Organized Crime at the UK Home Office, highlighted the importance of establishing an independent anti-civil society monitoring process. -corruption.
What is clearly lacking in the region in the fight against corruption, and more generally against organized crime, is a set of indicators to monitor and evaluate the government’s commitments. Governments and civil society organizations must work together to formulate and define this monitoring process. A dual oversight approach is essential to ensure that checks and balances are carried out on responsible agencies. Multiple actors must rise to the occasion: NGOs must pressure governments to be more transparent in their organized crime policies, while individuals can influence this development through the media social. In the meantime, the European Union and its member states can support the process from outside. The added value of a monitoring process in the Western Balkans is that it is led and advanced by an already active civil society, in a region and on a theme that are both at the top of the international political agenda.
A year has passed since the introduction of anti-corruption commitments in the Western Balkans and it appears that another year will pass without an independent civil society monitoring process.
While before the Poznan summit EU governments seemed keen for civil society to independently review their anti-corruption commitments, at the summit there was a clear sense of resistance and consensus in favor of A civil society monitoring approach has not been reached at the final level. ministerial level, according to the final statements. Although policymakers have reaffirmed that the fight against corruption remains a priority for the region and that collaboration with multiple actors is necessary, it appears that in reality Western Balkan governments remain reluctant to allow themselves to be scrutinized by Civil society. Some might argue that they expect criticism from civil society actors of their current performance. Given the general fatigue around EU enlargement, there appears to be little motivation for BM6 to engage. So, for now, the way forward in terms of monitoring anti-corruption initiatives in the Western Balkans remains unclear.
The Global Initiative thanks the Republic of Poland for the invitation to organize the panel at the Civil Society Forum at the Poznań Summit 2019 and the Government of the United Kingdom for its financial support to the Civil Society Observatory.