Posts Tagged: montenegro

balkans / politics — No Comments
13
Jan 09

That would be that Greater Albania they’ve been talking about

Well this is interesting:

Kosovo and Albania said they will soon sign an agreement creating a ‘mini-Schengen’ zone allowing free movement across their borders, a deal that could lead to a wider no-border zone in the region…

With signature planned withing two months, the two leaders said the agreement would be then sent to other states in the Balkans as an example of trade liberalisation and integration on the way to the European Union.

“This mini- Schengen of South East Europe would be followed by Montenegro and Macedonia,” Sejdiu said.

Of course, the first comments to go up on this news follows the well-worn paths of Balkan paranoia – specifically, the spectre of Greater Albania. It’s true that the countries mentioned in the scheme are those with Albanian populations, and that this scheme is likely to benefit those populations more than anybody else.1 It’s also true that the obvious next step would be – as this article points out – “a unified economic and external policy between the four, following the model of the Benelux countries.” Greater Albania, here we come!

Except of course, we don’t. Freedom of movement doesn’t create a Greater Albania, and neither does an economic area2 – unless you think that Albanians will outperform everybody else economically in that area3 but it does offer a way of stimulating economic activity across the region, which I would have thought would be something to welcome in these recessionary times. The only problem here would probably be Kosovo, whose economy is unlikely to take off any time soon and might drag the others down with it.

So why stop with those four countries? Invite everybody to the party! We could call it Not-Yugoslavia.

politics — 1 Comment
23
Jun 08

My nose, my face, my country

Many Balkan politicians have very firm principles. They’re prepared to make great sacrifices for those principles, but they’re more often prepared to sacrifice other people for them. People don’t seem to have as much of a problem with this as you’d expect – look at how many Serbs continued to follow Milosevic as he lead the country into utter ruin. It’s to the credit of the Serbian people that eventually they pulled themselves out of that collective descent, but the tendency remains firmly embedded in Balkan politics.

For a contemporary example, look no further than the report on Serbblog on the possibility that Montenegro might recognise Kosovo. Now this is something that’s unlikely in the extreme but which makes great political hay for pro-Serbian politicians in Montenegro – Andrija Mandic captured 19% of the vote in the recent elections by playing up to it. Mandic recently made a visit to Kosovo and has clearly decided that this is the issue that’s going to get him the most mileage:

Mandic suggested that ordinary Montenegrins take to the streets in protest, especially now during tourist season (tourism represents nearly 25% of the Montenegrin economy) should the Montenegrin leadership even consider such a traitorous move.

Apparently the Montenegrin government needs to be prevented from even thinking about recognising Kosovo (thoughtcrime!) and the best way to do that is to cripple the one part of the economy that’s actually growing. The fact that, if successful, the short-term impact of such a strike would damage the average Montenegrin more than anybody else, and that the long-term impact would probably kill the tourist industry in the cradle, seems to have escaped Mandic (and Serbblog, who supports the idea). Or maybe it hasn’t escaped him, and he genuinely believes that cutting your nose off to spite your face is a sensible policy position?

UPDATE: Okay, now Djukanovic has said in public that recognition of Kosovo independence is inevitable. Strike, Andrija, strike! (Of course, this is from New Kosova Report, and Djukanovic apparently specifically used the passive voice, and didn’t actually say that Montenegro is going to recognise Kosovo any time soon, etc, etc. Mileage may vary.)

life — 1 Comment
29
May 08

A Montenegrin Policeman’s Story

I keep meaning to write something insightful about the Montenegrin economy, but frankly who wants to be blogging when the weather is this nice? However, sometimes they just write themselves:

28 May 2008 Podgorica : A man suffering from a psychiatric disorder directed traffic in Montenegro’s capital for about half an hour until he was caught by police.

The 36-year-old man, dressed in a police uniform, started directing traffic with a baton at a busy intersection in the centre of Podgorica on Sunday evening…

… Police discovered that the man was a patient at a local psychiatric clinic, who had committed similar offences before.

“I always wanted to be a policeman and finally got the chance,” the man reportedly told police.

This guy clearly wants to be a policeman really badly, so I say give him a uniform and let him have a go. He can’t possibly do a worse job at directing traffic than most of the rest of the Montenegrin police force.