Westminster Foundation for Democracy – Written Evidence (BUB0006)

1. With links to conflict, migration and organised crime, the Western Balkans[1] has been a key feature of the UK’s European policy for 25 years. The UK’s P5 and G7 status, along with our security, diplomatic and development instruments, mean the UK has had substantial influence in the region: for example, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s (BiH) Reform Agenda was principally driven by the UK and Germany. However, the international community has prioritised stability over democratic values as it sought to address challenges in the region. This has failed to deliver the sustainable stability we seek. The UK needs to shift this balance and support genuine governance reforms which deliver for citizens.

2. Institutional integration – EU and NATO enlargement – is a central driver for reforms. The future of those processes rightly remains a decision for individual Balkan countries and institutions themselves. However, decisions relating to integration should be taken through consensual means with citizens at their heart. For this to happen, strong democratic institutions, culture and practices, all central to our shared values, are essential. Development of strong democracy, based on respect for fundamental human rights and rule of law, is the route through which true and sustainable stability can be delivered.    

Governance challenges

3. Instability in the region is driven by serious and deep-rooted governance challenges. These are the results of political elites with an interest in maintaining ethnic division and status quos, external influences, deeply embedded corruption, and serious organised crime, among others. These result in low citizen engagement, weak inclusion particularly of youth, women and minorities, and growing discontent and mistrust in public institutions.[2]

4. External influences are high, particularly from Russia, Turkey, China and the Middle East. At the same time, EU enlargement now seems like a distant prospect. This combination weakens the momentum towards institutional integration and governance reform. In some cases, previous governance progress has been reversed.

5. Strong trends towards authoritarian governments, parliaments that provide weak oversight to executive power, political parties with a “winner takes all” mentality and little overall respect for the rules of the game, are all evident. Political instability has been characterised by severely delayed (Macedonia) or early (Serbia and Kosovo) elections, opposition boycotts of legislatures (Montenegro and Albania), ethno-nationalism and identity politics (BiH) and protracted crises across the region, all in the last eighteen months. These prevent effective governance, delivery of key reforms and, critically, quality service delivery for citizens. This acts to compound mistrust in public institutions and widespread dissatisfaction in society.

6. WFD’s evidence focuses on four central elements of the governance challenge in the Western Balkans: parliaments, political parties, women’s political participation and youth engagement.

Parliaments

7. Parliaments and other elected institutions should be at the centre of public life, representing citizens’ needs, overseeing executives and passing quality legislation. In the Western Balkans, parliaments are more of a rubber stamp with weak procedures, practices and cultures to perform these tasks effectively. Legislation is frequently fast-tracked without proper parliamentary scrutiny, often justified as being needed for European integration requirements. To illustrate: in the first year of Serbia’s 2016 parliamentary convocation, 88 laws were passed in 68 days, half of these through the fast-track procedure.[3] Conversely, other real issues are ignored or legislation consistently delayed. As a result, governments increase their authority, public funds are misappropriated[4] and used to fuel corruption, and poor legislation reaches statute. Civil society across the region report their access to parliaments and government institutions has diminished, often resulting in a confrontational relationship between legislators and citizens.

8. Early parliamentary elections have become the norm rather than exceptional – unscheduled elections have taken place in Serbia and Kosovo in the past year. These are often used as a tool to consolidate positions and strengthen power (Serbia 2016, for example). Lack of stability in parliamentary life is further evident by frequent opposition boycotts and an inability to form stable majorities: BiH, Macedonia, Montenegro and Kosovo are recent or contemporary examples. Although mechanisms for oversight exist, they are not regularly or effectively used. Executives lack respect for parliaments as institutions, eroding the role of oppositions and accountability. Use of rapid emergency legislative procedures furthers this pattern. Combined with closed-list elections, legitimacy of elected representative is undermined and the divide with constituents deepened.

9. UK policies that focus on countering these trends would help enhance public trust in elected institutions. For this to happen, linkages with constituents and civil society need to be strengthened, bringing parliament closer to citizens, engaging in open decision-making and responding to people’s needs. Accountability should be enhanced and parliaments supported to improve their oversight of state services, implementation of legislation and policy delivery. This will aid elected institutions to go beyond the pattern of box-tick legislative approvals without a clear view on how these impact citizens lives. 

Political Parties

10.           Political parties are central to the governance challenge and can make-or-break reforms. Across the Western Balkans standards of political party debate, behaviours and structures fall well short of those expected in a genuinely democratic society. The use of tear gas in the Assembly of Kosovo throughout 2015 and 2016, serves as an extreme example. In 2017, WFD commissioned a study to support defining what can be considered “European-standards” for political parties. This concluded a set of central principles (see Annex 3), many of which are lacking in the region: we see parties with undemocratic internal decision-making, lacking transparency in processes and their funding, and often with limited clear ideology or policy coherence.

11.           Raising political party standards is difficult but possible. A combination of tailored approaches is needed. These can include using existing political relationships between UK and local parties or supporting new ones, strengthening groups within parties – women’s caucuses, youth movements, human rights lobbies etc. – and providing training on or exposure to standards for different issues such as internal decision-making. The UK’s strong reputation and longstanding relationships within the region give us a head start in providing such support. Almost all the UK’s political parties have relationships with counterparts across the region, providing clear opportunities for enhanced engagement.

Women’s political participation

12. Despite the right to participate equally in governance and proven leadership abilities, women are underrepresented at all level of governance in Western Balkans. There are no woman heads of state and only one women Prime Minister. The proportion of seats held by women in parliament stands at 28.6%, not reflecting the structure of society.[5] Women’s participation in public and political life not only indicates the quality of democratic culture but can contribute to addressing political challenges. Evidence indicates that in transitional contexts, women’s participation contributes to establishing effective relationship between citizens and elected institutions, overcome political gridlocks and stagnation of party and national policies.[6] The UK is well place to lead on supporting initiatives that ensure fair participation of women in public life; diversity and gender balance within policy-makers, that are a true reflection of their society, can address different needs of citizens.

Youth engagement

13. The youth population is large and expanding. Dissatisfaction within this demographic is overwhelming and their engagement within formal political processes is marginalised. Youth unemployment, particularly of low and middle educated population is generally high; the regional average youth unemployment rate was 47.7% in 2015.[7] Despite this, youth-friendly policies which support empowerment, employment and education are largely absent and neglected by political elites. Youth discontent has resulted in violent protests and increasing political support for radical movements. Young people are considerably more favourable to European integration than the current generation of politicians,[8] challenging conventional wisdom on reform drivers. Encouraging and enhancing youth engagement in political life needs to be central to the sustainability of any approach in pursuit of stability and protection of interests. UK support for youth engagement can help strengthen the UK’s reputation and influence in the region in the long-term.

Conclusion and recommendations

14. Stability is a valid UK objective for the Western Balkans but, to be effective, policy and programmes need to address underlying governance challenges and make long-term investments. Supporting the creation of strong representative institutions, political parties defined by policy rather than individual characters and nationalism, regional and international interaction, and engagement of youth in decision-making, should all be part of the picture. These can all be achieved with a distinctly British brand but aligned with European and other international efforts.

15. Although the timetable will be slower, regional and institutional integration will continue to be a critical driver of reform. These processes must be genuine for true reforms to be realised and decisions taken with citizens’ interests front-and-centre. A longer timetable should be used to help to deepen democracy and strengthen good governance. The UK can act as a strong and neutral advocate for thes­­­­­­e reforms in governance, and can provide valuable policy and programmatic support. The UK has a strong reputation in the region and Western Balkan countries look towards our experience to learn from, adapt and replicate; this should be leveraged. Through supporting genuine and long-term governance reform, the UK will be able to help address issues such as corruption and organised crime, which directly impact UK interests.

Submitted 11 September 2017

ANNEX 1: About WFD

Westminster Foundation for Democracy is the UK’s leading democracy-strengthening organisation and has been supporting democratic development globally for 25 years. We bring together parliamentary, political party and electoral expertise to help developing countries and countries transitioning to democracy.

WFD’s programmes aim to support parliaments that are strengthening their effectiveness in carrying out their main responsibilities - representing their citizens, scrutinising the executive, and debating and adopting legislation. WFD has programmes working at both national and sub-national level and in countries at different stages of democratic development

WFD collaborates with parliamentarians and parliamentary staff in Westminster as well as in the devolved parliaments and institutions in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. As well as sharing the diverse range of UK parliamentary experience, WFD is a strong believer in building peer networks among our partner countries. Participants in these networks can share their current experiences of addressing the challenges of building democracy in developing countries and within regions.

WFD has been active in the Western Balkans for more the 20 years. We have an established network of programme offices in countries across the region. Currently, WFD has a field presence in: BiH (Sarajevo), Serbia (Belgrade), Montenegro (Podgorica), Macedonia (Skopje) and Kosovo (Pristina). We plan to open a new field office in Albania (Tirana) within the next 12 months. 

ANNEX 2: WFD Programme Portfolio in the Western Balkans

Details of WFD’s portfolio of substantial parliamentary and institutional support programmes are provided below. In addition to these programmes, WFD sponsors a wide range of political party and sister-party activities implemented directly by the UK political parties.

Western Balkans-wide

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Serbia

Macedonia

Kosovo ­­

Montenegro

* WFD’s core funded regional programme and establishing a PBO in Serbia are combined into one budget. Therefore, the split of funds across the two programme is approximate. The total budget 2015-18 is £600,000.

† Contracting of our Supporting Parliamentary Reform in Macedonia programme has yet to be concluded. Therefore, the indicative budget figure has been included. This indicative budget will cover the programme’s inception period.

ANNEX 3: European-standards for political parties

In 2016/17, WFD commissioned a study to define “European-standards” for political party behaviour and operations. The study was primarily to support our Transforming Political Governance in Kosovo programme, sponsored by the British Embassy, Pristina, but is widely more applicable. The study concluded four key principles which define European-standards for political parties:

• Democracy: relating to citizen engagement, membership and recruitment, internal decision-making and communications;
• Respect for the rule of law: relating to rights to challenge the existing order including party leadership, and denouncing the use of violence;
• Transparency: relating to party decision-making, funding and appointment processes for positions within party structures and within relevant institutions (such as party lists, government posts and in legislatures);
• Ideological profile: relating to a clear ideology integrated into programmes and policies.

References