European Union should do more for Roma and Bosnia

The Society for Threatened Peoples International (STPI) takes a critical look at the visit of EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to the Western Balkans. The human rights organization welcomes Juncker’s encouragement to the Western Balkans, as well as the EU Commission’s new “Western Balkans Strategy”, according to which future EU members must solve their minority issues in the interest of the respective minority groups. However, the STPI urgently calls for more European involvement to improve the living conditions of the Roma. It is seen as unfortunate that Juncker did not mention the social situation of the Roma populations in the Western Balkans. The Roma are an especially marginalized population group in the countries of the former Yugoslavia. For the Roma, it is not an alternative to leave their traditional home and try to find protection in Central and Western Europe in order to survive. There must be a local alternative. Juncker had visited the Western Balkans in early March 2018.

According to the STPI, the accession talks with Serbia are a slap in the face for Bosnia, as the victims of the Serbian war of aggression, the Bosnians, are left out. The country will remain divided, and the ethnically separated “cantons” will not grow together without mediation from Brussels. Currently, Turkey and Russia, among others, are taking advantage of the fact that the EU is so reluctant to act – but this is not in the interest of the EU.

The STPI appealed to the EU Commission to take the situation in the Balkans as well as its own guidelines seriously. Minority rights must be guaranteed and implemented, and Bosnia must be given a national perspective, the human rights activists demanded.

The STP International is an association of the STP sections in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, South Tyrol, Bosnia, and Kurdistan. Last weekend, the STPI held a meeting in Sarajevo. In the course of the meeting, Wolfgang Mayr, who is from South Tyrol, was elected as the new president. The STP’s sections thanked the founder of the STP and longstanding President of the STP International, Tilman Zülch, for his many years of dedication.

Header Photo: Nikolay Doychinov (EU2018BG) via Flickr