Reports on politics, economics and society of Central Eastern Europe and Balkan countries

The Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Research and Studies on Eastern Europe hosted on December 3rd, 2012 Natallia Pinchuk. She delivered a lecture titled «Belarus' Authoritarian Puzzle».

This article intends to be a first part of a diachronic comparative analyses between the local elections held on May 2011 and the general elections to be held on June 2013 in Albania.

On December 11th, 2012 in the premises of the Faculty of Political Sciences “Roberto Ruffilli” Forlì, IECOB-Istituto per l'Europa Centro-Orientale e Balcanica, Juvenilja Association and F.A.R.E – Forum Associazioni Albanesi in Emilia-Romagna, organised a scientific conference in occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Albanian indipendence

"In nome dell'idea jugoslava che Gavrilo Princip sparò e uccise Francesco Ferdinando il 28 giugno 1914, dando avvio alla Prima guerra mondiale."

The Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Research and Studies on Eastern Europe hosted another inspiring lecture, titled «Kosovo, The Current Phase: The Conflict over Status and Ethnopolitical Implications». The speaker, Leonas Tolvaišis, recently defended his PhD at the Vytautas Magnus University of Kaunas, Lithuania. Former tutor and experienced MIREES public lecturer, Tolvaišis delivered a lecture which fully reflects his research interests, namely ethnopolitics in the Balkans and Eastern Europe at large.

The public lecture on Socaial Development in Today's Hungary take place within the framework of the Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Research and Studies on Eastern Europe (MIREES). The debate was focused on the evolution of co-operation patterns in Hungarian business networks defining themselves as clusters. Moreover types of corruption transactions in Hungary and their main features was discussed.

On 8 May 2012, Dr. Matteo Verda of the Istituto pergli Studi di Politica Internazionale (University of Pavia) gave a presentationabout the Russia-EU energy relationship. The lecture was held in the frameworkof the Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Research and Studies on EasternEurope (MIREES) and hosted by the Faculty of Political Science “RobertoRuffilli”.

On 30 May 2012, Leonas Tolvaišis (PhD, Vytautas Magnus University)delivered an open lecture at the Faculty of PoliticalScience “Roberto Ruffilli” in the framework of the Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Research andStudies on Eastern Europe (MIREES).

Inchronological terms,the lecture dealt with the ethnopolitical developments inthe current period ofKosovo's history, which is ofted referred to as “the newreality” in the popularpolitical discourse. The speaker argued that the pastdecade can be furthersubdivided into phases which mark successive stages of ethnopoliticaldynamics in Kosovo.

The first stage startedin mid-June 1999, when Kosovo came under internationaladministration. Serbia'spolitical defeat over Kosovo was accompanied by a lackof political will on thepart of international peace-keeping forces to considerKosovo Serbs as a groupthat needed protection. These circumstances paved theway for post-war changesof Kosovo's ethnic structure. In the long run, thesechanges facilitated the 'state building' process south oftheIbar river, on the territories that underwent violent ethnic homogenization.
 The second stage started on March17-19, 2004, when a huge campaign of anti-Serbviolenceall over Kosovo completed the process of Serb exodus from thecities. As theMarch 2004 had the effect of stopping the return of displacedpeople to Kosovo,it can be considered 'a point of no return' for the KosovoSerb community.

 The third stage beganwith the declaration of independenceinPriština and was marked by the introduction of officialmulticulturalpolicies on the basis of the Ahtisaari Plan. Given the strongethnicmobilization basis of the very idea of Kosovo's state-building andthecontinuity of the Kosovo Liberation Army(KLA) at the coreof Kosovo's Institutions of Provisional Self-Government(PISG), the speakerattempted to evaluate the extent to which Kosovo fits thenotion of“nationalizing state”.

Elaborated by Rogers Brubaker, the concept of nationalizingstate implies the promotion of language, culture,demographics,economic prosperity and political domination of the majoritynation. Drawing onextensive material collected in Kosovo, the speakerpresented evidences ofdiscrepancies between formal multicultural institutionsand the practices ofnationalizing state that often lack a genuinemulticultural policy content. Pointingto the most relevant shortcomings ofofficial multicultural policies, he arguedthat three elements of the “ethniccontrol” theoretical model – dependency,cooptation and fragmentation – aremanifest in the patterns of the KosovoSerbs'interaction with Priština.

South of the Ibar, all theexistential needs of the Serb community (humansecurity, freedom of movement,economic opportunities, electricity and watersupplies, telecommunications,etc.) are conditioned by Priština and subject tostatus-relatedchannels. There, the participation of Serbs in the Priština-basedinstitutionsis often seen as the only way to survive and to ensure thecontinuation of theSerb presence in Kosovo.

Finally, the fragmentation of Kosovo Serbs alongstatus-related lines, orcompetition between Serbs serving in Belgrade-basedand Priština-basedinstitutions, further weakens the local Serbcommunity. With a persisting strongcorrelation between political dynamics andsecurity situation, along withunequivocal demographic trends afffectingthe enclaves,the officialmulticultural policy regime does not ensure the long-termsustainability of theSerb community in Kosovo.

 The ongoing 'barricade crisis' in North Kosovo wasanalyzedin the context of reluctance on the part of the local population tocome underPriština's conditionality, already experienced by the Serbssouth of the Ibar. Thepatterns of the KFOR's and EULEX's interaction with thepopulation of North Kosovo in the past months reveal a complete lack ofPriština's legitimacy inthis subregion. Still, the EU as a key supervisor ofKosovo's independence isguided by a principle that sees Kosovo as a single unitgoverned fromPristina.

The lecture wasfollowed by a stimulating discussion on the implications ofKosovo'sexperiences for the Western Balkans,a region where onemultiethnic state has been replaced by an ambiguous numberof states and hardlysustainable state-like entities, whose official politicalidentities have beenincreasingly framed in post-nation-state terms.


Leonas Tolvaišis (PhD, Vytautas MagnusUniversity)

The annual conference of the Center for Russian, Central and East European Studies was held in Glasgow on May 17-18. Paolo Sorbello and Elvira Oliva of the Energy Policy Studies group, wrote down a report on the Research Forum.

On March 19, 2012, Ali Fuat Borovalı delivered an open lecture at the Faculty of Political Science “Roberto Ruffilli” in Forlì, in the framework of the Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Research and Studies on Eastern Europe (MIREES).

On 27 and 29 March 2012, Ákos Kengyel, presented two open lectures at the Faculty of Political Science “Roberto Ruffilli” in Forlì, in the framework of the Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Research and Studies on Eastern Europe (MIREES).