Citizens of Western Balkan countries have developed great resilience, but not of the kind that is needed. It is not resilience which means adjusting to new challenges and overcoming them, but resilience as over-tolerance and adjustment of bad governance in order to survive. The region should finally translate political declarations into concrete actions to change the situation. These are some of the points presented by the speakers at the panel discussion “Resilience in the Western Balkans”, which took place on Monday (19.12.2017) at City Hall in Skopje. The event also promoted a report that covered several aspects of the resilience challenges and proposals for solutions for problems that countries and societies in the region are facing with.
In the discussion with their own speeches participated Marko Trosanovski, President of the Institute for Democracy ‘Societas Civilis’, Bujar Osmani, Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs, Thomas Gerberich, Ambassador of Germany to Skopje, Mrs Hedvig Morvai, Executive Director of the European Fund for the Balkans, Florian Bieber, Professor and Director of Southeast European Studies at the University of Graz and Coordinator of the Balkan in Europe Policy Advisory Group, Marika Djolai, Research and policy analyst at Balkan in Europe Policy Advisory Group, Igor Bandovic, Senior Program Manager, European Fund for the Balkans, Srdjan Cvijic, Senior Policy Analyst at the Open Society European Policy Institute, in Brussels and Vedran Dzihic, Senior Researcher at the Austrian Institute for International Affairs and Lecturer at the University of Vienna, Corina Stratulat, Senior Policy Analyst, European Policy Center, Brussels and Zoran Nechev, Senior researcher at the Institute for Democracy ‘Societas Civilis’ and Senior Associate Fellow at the European Union Institute for Security Studies will moderate the discussion.
In psychology Resilience is the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significant stress. It means overcoming difficult experiences and continuing with life. The term has been used more intensely not only for the psychological state of the individual, but for whole communities, states and societies. The European Union promotes it as a strategic approach to reinforcing the resilience of states in the face of an increasing number of threats. The EU’s approach aims at strengthening:
- the adaptability of states, societies, communities and individuals to political,economic, environmental, demographic or societal pressures, in order to sustain progress towards national development goals;
- the capacity of a state – in the face of significant pressures to build, maintain or restore its core functions, and basic social and political cohesion, in a manner that ensures respect for democracy, rule of law, human and fundamental rights and fosters inclusive long-term security and progress;
- the capacity of societies, communities and individuals to manage opportunities and risks in a peaceful and stable manner, and to build, maintain or restore livelihoods in the face of major pressures.
The discussion was jointly organized by the European Union Institute for Security Studies, Institute for Democracy ‘Societas Civilis’, European Fund for the Balkans and the Balkans in Europe Policy Advisory Group, aims to provide a forum for an in-depth discussion on the effectiveness of EU policies towards the Western Balkans, and future needs of the region in its EU accession process, in particular referring to the EU Global Strategy and resilience.
On the following link you can read the policy brief on this topic “Fostering resilience in the Western Balkans” by Zoran Necev and Florian Trauner.
On the following link you can read the complete report “Resilience in the Western Balkans”. Both documents are published by the EU Institute for Security Studies – ISS .
