Tell me why I should be bothered about ‘x’. This is an agument you often hear when proactive policies are proposed in connection with looming problems. Well a good example comes to mind today. The arrest in June on a Belgrade railway station of Abdelmajid Bouchar, a Moroccan, wanted by Spanish police for alleged involvement in last year’s Madrid bombings draws attention to the way some Balkan states can be used as ’safe havens’ by would be terrorists. Of course there are many reasons why we need a Balkans policy in the EU, but if self-interest is what moves you, then here’s an important one.
2 Responses
Feed: A Fistful of Euros
August 29th, 2005 at 11:49 am
If you are really serious about counterterrorism you must withdraw. A foreign army maintaining anything close to decent humanitarian standards will never be effective in a role that essentially depends on intellegence.
August 29th, 2005 at 6:53 pm
Umm, the reason there is no coherent Balkan policy in the EU is because the different Balkan countries want different things. For example, Greece and France are very pro-Serbian and anti-Muslim, so they want certain things, but this brings them into conflict with Germany and Austria who are more pro-Croatian and pro-Muslim.
Until this essential viewpoints are resolved, there can’t be a common, proactive EU Balkan policy. Note that the reactive EU Balkan policy worked reasonably well in Macedonia.