Izvor: N1 televizija, 19.Jul.2018, 13:05 (ažurirano 02.Apr.2020.)
Reality shows Balkans lagging decades behind EU, expert says
The report of the UK Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee that has estimated it could take the Western Balkans 50 or 60 years to catch up with European Union living standards is realistic, if not toned down, the Director of the Institute for European Affairs told N1.
Naim Leo Besiri described the report as “comprehensive” and said that 24 experts and organisations contributed to it.
“The report’s brightest point is that we don’t kill each other any more. Concerning >> Pročitaj celu vest na sajtu N1 televizija << all other issues the authors expressed serious worry,” Besiri added.
As far as Serbia is concerned, he says, its people will not be wealthy as long as there are corruption, organised crime and the weak judiciary,” adding that “we are at 25 percent of the EU standard and don’t see any progress."
“We don’t have the rule of law. No one wants to go to court… Corruption is widespread to the extent that people who go to doctors think more about what to give them than why they have to see them,” Besiri said, adding “Serbia loses 500 kilometres of a motorway per year due to corruption.”
Besiri said that Serbia did nothing in fighting corruption since the most of the anti-corruption arrests did not end in the indictments and were used in pre-election marketing.
He also believes that corruption will exist as long as there is so-called politically-sponsored employment.
Speaking about the Euroscepticism, Besiri said that it existed in all EU member states due to migrations and the raising level of xenophobia, while in all candidate countries, except in Serbia, there was excellent support for the EU.
He added that both the European Commission and people in Serbia wanted the same things – the rule of law, better health service, better infrastructure, stable institutions.
People in Serbia lack information about the EU integration process and positively respond only when seeing a benefit, Besiri says, adding the period after the visa liberation in 2009 as an example.
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