The West has spent significant amounts of money for the reconstruction of the Balkans. Overall assistance to southeastern Europe was significant, ranging between €6-6.5 billion per annum from 1995-2006. Aid peaked twice, as a response to post-conflict reconstruction: first in 1995-1997 due to the significant assistance given to Bosnia and Herzegovina (following the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords) and secondly in 2001-2002 due to the considerable amounts of aid given to Kosovo after the NATO bombings. Bosnia received massive amounts of humanitarian and reconstruction assistance. On average the country received about $730 million per year from 1996-2002. At $1,400 per head, assistance in the first two post-war years in Bosnia was higher than any other international state-building project since the Second World War. Kosovo also received massive amounts of financial aid in the 1999-2004 period: about $3.1 billion of international aid targeted mostly humanitarian priorities and helped rebuild most of the 120,000 houses destroyed in the violence. Significant assistance was also provided to Serbia after the end of the Milosevic era: from 2000-2005, Serbia received more the $3.5 billion. In total, throughout the last twenty years the European Union (European Commission and the member-states) provided about 66% of the assistance for the reconstruction of western Balkans and the United States about 15%. With regard to the relevant burden of the European Community and its member states, and with few exceptions (like Yugoslavia and Romania from 1991-1999), Community contributions were higher to much higher than all EU member states bilateral efforts taken together.

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After the European elections last year, during these January days when temperatures are quite low in Brussels, the atmosphere among the commissioner-designates and their staff, Members of the European Parliament and the political public is becoming overheated. At first we were witness to a very wide range of atmospheres during hearings, ranging from relaxed to uncomfortable; both for candidates and for the audience alike. The speeches and answers of commissioners–designate often emphasised the common values of the European Union. So, what are these exactly? Read the rest of this entry »