As part of the project “Democracy in Progress: Shadow Progress Report on Political Copenhagen Criteria in Western Balkans EU Candidate States”, during May and June 2017 workshops were organized in Macedonia, Serbia and Albania, bringing together representatives of the main CSOs and supporting international organizations active in the field, to discuss the main problems of democracy in the countries. In Macedonia, the problems of politization of public administration, lack of independence, impartiality and objectivity of the judiciary, and excessive pressure on CSOs were stressed, while in Serbia it was concluded that the electoral process is flawed and more attention needs to be given to the question of media freedoms. In Albania, participants agreed that a higher and constructive involvement of civil society in all democratic and reform processes is needed, yet CSOs are not properly represented and initiatives are not backed up with proper budget. The goal of the project, implemented by the Centre for Contemporary Politics and Cooperation and Development Institute with the support of the European Fund for the Balkans, is the publication of alternative, “shadow” country reports on the four EU candidate states in the Western Balkans – Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Albania – which will be available in November 2017. More information is available here.
Source: EWB