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bne August 2023 Companies & Markets I 23
Hope for the future
However, not all is gloomy. One in five respondents associate the Balkans with hope or co-operation, suggesting a willingness to work together to address the challenges they face.
The share of respondents that associate the Balkans with hope or co-operation is as high as 49% in Albania.
However, only 27% of Kosovans and 36% of Serbians feel the same way.
Albanians were similarly optimistic when asked about regional co-operation and whether what brings the Western Balkan citizens together is more important than what separates them. 83% of Albanians expressed positive views on regional co-operation and 85% on closeness between Western Balkan citizens. At the other end of the scale, the figures for Bosnia were only 67% and 57% respectively.
Majlinda Bregu, the RCC secretary general, pointed out three key trends from the Balkan Barometer findings.
“The Balkan Barometer reveals three main public opinion trends in the Western Balkans. First the good news: 76% of people believe regional co-operation is good for their economy. Moreover, 69% agree that what brings the Western Balkan citizens together is more important than
what separates them,” said Bregu.
However, she added: “The second [trend] is that the support [for] EU membership in the region is now 59%, or 3% less than in 2021. And the third one is depopulation concern
as 44% think to live abroad, 5% more than in 2022. It is
also extremely worrisome that 71% of young people are considering leaving their home country.”
Elaborating on the findings, Berg commented: “The Balkan Barometer tells a story of people worried about their jobs, wellbeing and how everything that is going on around us is affecting our vulnerable region. It tells a story of willingness to make our home a better place of living, so that we can feel safe, secure and with a better future ahead for us and our children. In regional co-operation and the things that unite us, people see hope and opportunity to better themselves.”
The annual Balkan Barometer, commissioned by the RCC, serves as a tool to examine public opinion and business sentiments in the six Western Balkans economies. Conducted by an independent agency, the survey provides valuable data from over 6,000 citizens and 1,200 companies throughout the region. It offers policymakers, researchers and the
public a comprehensive understanding of prevailing socio- economic and political trends, as well as insights into regional and European integration.
Romania warned to curb budget deficit or lose EU funding
Iulian Ernst in Bucharest
The European Commission on June 30 sent Romania
a notification requesting the country to curb its budget deficit, or else part of the cohesion funds would be suspended, Minister of Finance Marcel Bolos told the leadership of the National Liberal Party (PNL) on July 3 according to the transcript of the talks published by Digi24.
Romania has been under the Excessive Deficit Procedure since before the COVID-19 crisis, when the budgetary regulations were temporarily suspended, and it is unlikely to meet the 4.4% of GDP deficit this year after the gap exceeded 2.3% of GDP in January-May.
“We received a document from the Commission on Friday [June 30] recommending us to cut the [budget] deficit, otherwise [the Commission] suspends the European funds,” Bolos reportedly said.
Liberal Finance Minister Bolos is an advocate of eliminating all exceptions and loopholes in the fiscal system – a step
recommended by all international financial institutions (IFIs) to help achieve fiscal consolidation.
“The deficit is wide, we can’t keep it under control without eliminating the loopholes,” Bolos reportedly told the PNL leadership on July 3. He previously expressed concerns about the wide January-May deficit.
Among the first exceptions envisaged by Bolos for elimination were the allowances extended to employees in IT, construction, food processing and agriculture.
Neither the PNL nor its coalition partner the Social Democratic Party (PSD) agree, however, with this scenario proposed by Bolos as a first step for balancing the budget.
The 2023 budget was drafted by Bolos’ predecessor, PSD minister Adrian Caciu and the planned revenues proved to be overly optimistic, which complicates the fiscal consolidation that the Liberals want to achieve.
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