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The Forum > Article Comments > Corruption in the Balkans is impeding EU membership > Comments

Corruption in the Balkans is impeding EU membership : Comments

By Alon Ben-Meir and Arbana Xharra, published 11/1/2019

The EU should also insist on greater transparency and accountability, which would curtail pervasive corruption by elected officials.

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I wonder if the corruption in those Balkan countries is related to the
hundreds of years that they were occupied by the Ottoman Empire ?
Did an underground resistance to the Ottomans morph into a culture of
"cheating " as a form of resistance which has just become the way things are done ?
Greece entering the EU did not stop them from refusing to pay tax.
Being in the EU economy was not compatible with their customary
attitude to tax and that is what got Greece into so much trouble.
Posted by Bazz, Sunday, 13 January 2019 12:11:04 PM
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Alan B said;
if taken over by a corrupt Nazi-style extreme right-wing government

Eeerr, Nazi parties are extreme LEFT WING parties !

National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP)
in German
Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei

I think that left wing people did not like to be linked to Nazis so
thought it was great idea to tag the Nazis onto right wing
conservative parties. But reality strikes again. The NAZIs are
left wing parties so just live with it and the lefties probably
have the best leverage on any NAZI like groups to shut them up.
Posted by Bazz, Sunday, 13 January 2019 12:44:36 PM
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Turkey of the '90s is a good starting point to understand the behaviour of Balkan states and central Europeans in relation to how their nations operate, external relations and constraints.

Mid '90s Turkey was emerging from dictatorship, autarkist economy and limited mobility while dominated by sub-optimal education, military, security services, (nationalised) Sunni Islam, business council dominated by large holding companies or oligarchs, ossified political parties and MPs; all underpinned by ethical, corruption and trust issues.

Fast forward, nations on the periphery of the EU including Balkans and Turkey all aspired to EU membership to help transition from basket cases to more developed democracies.

Then, along with the EU assuming trust that new members would act ethically, were national MPs and corporates becoming Nativist due to competition, youth/working age becoming aware of the world while ignoring national leaders and the EU (and local entities) pointing out corruption.

Resulting in attacking the EU (while accepting EU funds), consolidating media, attacking judiciary, becoming joined at the hip with majority religion, favouring limited circle of oligarchs, gerry mandering of ageing, monocultural regional electorates and manipulating the electoral franchise e.g. precluding access to voting by youth/working age citizens and acting like dictators; while govt. services decline.

Interestingly, like these nations, the UK was in economic doldrums, when desperate to join the EEC and now a predominantly Nativist English push arose to withdraw and become 'little England'; backgrounded still, by Brexit chaos.

However, interestingly, this would appear not to severely impact the top 1-5% who promote withdrawal from multilateral trade agreements aka EU's, but damaging to youth and future generations, whether UK or peripheral nations, while the majority of 'people' wish to remain in the EU?
Posted by Andras Smith, Sunday, 13 January 2019 3:29:10 PM
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So a little local corruption is saving the Balkan states from the much worse corruption that is the EU.

Lucky Balkans.
Posted by Hasbeen, Monday, 14 January 2019 11:43:12 AM
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