The prime ministers of four Balkan nations will meet on Sunday in an historic event that underlines a growing impetus towards regional integration. In a rare display of unity, the leaders, who represent former republics of Yugoslavia torn apart by war in the 1990s, will meet for a luncheon at the EBRD's Business Forum, Emerging Markets can reveal.
Present at the lunch will be the prime ministers of Serbia, Vojislav Kostunica; Montenegro, Milo Djukanovic; Macedonia, Vlado Buckovski; and Bosnia-Herzegovina, Adnan Terzic. Their joint appearance will show their political will to heal old divisions and march towards regional integration and the EU.
Finance ministers from Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania and Albania will also be attending the meeting along with EBRD officials and several key business leaders.
Commenting on the meeting, an EBRD official said, "You're seeing co-operation and increasing trade on the business side in the region and the political side has rather lagged behind. The idea of this meeting is to show there is political cooperation as well
Bozidar Djelic, former Serbian finance minister, told Emerging Markets that he did not expect any concrete announcement to come out of the meeting but that the symbolism is nonetheless important. "There will be lots of good words and I'm not being facetious," he said. "I think it's good because we all know what happens when presidents and prime ministers don't meet, when there are bad words in the Balkans. This message of friendship and peace and constructive dialogue is something that is very good for the inhabitants of the region."
Djelic also put the meeting in a greater historical context. "Never in the history of the Balkans were all the countries of the region democratic and never were they all geared to one goal, that is joining the European Union," he said.
One notable absence from the meeting is likely to be Croatia's prime minister, Ivo Sanader, although at the time Emerging Markets went to press last night his final decision remained unclear.
Despite his statement to Croatian Parliament on Wednesday that he would continue bilateral relations with Serbia and Montenegro, Sanader the next day is understood to have changed his mind about coming to Belgrade. He had, however, officially confirmed his attendance in advance. Sources said last night that his attendance was still under discussion.
In an interesting twist, Croatian deputy prime minister Damir Polancec, who had confirmed his trip, subsequently cancelled his plans to attend the meeting. His office confirmed that this was done at Sanader's request, although refused to be drawn on the reasons for the decision. Croatia's delegation includes senior government officials but, if Sanader and Polancec do not come, no politicians will be present.
Sanader's wavering follows Croatian President Stipe Mesic's announcement on Tuesday that he was canceling his own plans to travel to Belgrade to meet Serbia's president Tadic. Mesic's about face stems from the continuing bitter dispute between the two countries over the legacy of World War II. His move recalls the fact that despite progress, Balkan politics can always fall prey to old historical grievances.