2009 Annual Report

2009 Central and Eastern Europe Highlights

In 2009, the countless commemorations of the 20th anniversary of the “revolutions of 1989” demonstrated how much progress has been made in building a Europe that is whole and free. Since the end of the Cold War, ten former Soviet bloc countries have joined the European Union and NATO. In 2009, two more Balkan countries, Albania and Croatia, became the newest members of NATO.

For millions in southeastern Europe, however, the celebrations of reconciliation, restoration, and renewal produced feelings of exclusion and despair. Many in the Western Balkans, especially young people, felt as though they were outsiders at the party, with little hope of ever truly joining in. While Brussels has declared that “the future of the Balkans lies within the European Union,” Europe’s enthusiasm for enlargement has abated. For the Western Balkans, 2009 marked the launch of a new visa regime that will allow some to freely travel to Europe, but not others. Europe has seemingly replaced the “Iron Curtain” with a new “Schengen Wall.” The continent and region remain divided.

The Youth Communication Center held sessions to empower student advocates in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Much of the region’s stagnation is due to governments failing to make the reforms needed to consolidate democratization and meet the political and social conditions necessary to join the EU. Like the new member states, the Western Balkans continues to be plagued by rampant corruption, unaccountable politicians, and civic apathy, the impact of which has been made worse by the global financial crisis. But unlike “New Europe,” the Western Balkans are also dealing with a very specific series of post-conflict issues stemming from the 1989 collapse of communism and the recent wars which continue to fuel political extremism and ethnic tensions.

To address the region’s persistent challenges, the Endowment increased its support, awarding a record number of grants in 2009. No longer active in EU member states, the Endowment instead focused its assistance on Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Moldova, Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro to help democratic activists jump-start reforms needed to achieve Euro-Atlantic integration and complete the transition process begun two decades ago. A majority of the programs focused on making governments accountable and rein in corruption by reinvigorating independent media and civic activism.

Following the October 2008 local elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, NED programs continued to promote the transparency and accountability of government institutions and elected officials, as well as foster political and civic engagement. The Center for Civic Cooperation in Livno, for example, promoted more efficient local government by improving the capacity of municipal wards, enhancing communications between local authorities and citizens, and increasing citizen participation in municipalities.

Photo from the opening ceremony of DokuFest in Kosovo

In its second year of independence, Kosovo continued to face entrenched corruption and weak official institutions. But a boom in new NGOs with innovative approaches to these challenges indicates that civil society is alive and responding. Ahead of the November 2009 local elections, the Institute for Advanced Studies GAP partnered with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) to inform citizens about the performance of their local municipalities. The Initiative for Progress (INPO) conducted an anticorruption-themed get-out-the-vote campaign for local council elections in the southern part of the country. Its sister organization, the newly-formed Speak Up, used the elections as a platform to raise public awareness about the harmful consequences of conflict of interest and the need for proper enforcement of existing legislation on this issue.

Recognizing that media can strongly influence citizen attitudes towards accountability, independent organizations in Serbia are increasingly using television and the internet to foster better standards of political culture and encourage officials to be more responsive to the public. Television programs such as ANEM’s “Power Mad” — which investigates cases of corruption, conflict of interest, and misuse of power at the local government level — helped reshape opinions about accountability and publicize the idea that the government is a public service delegated through elections. In the same vein, LiNet’s interactive Truth-O-Meter website serves as a political fact-checking database of political party and public officials’ statements; users can compare these to previously-made declarations, programs, policies and laws.

In 2009, Moldova held breakthrough elections that revived its democratic transition and aspirations for European integration. NED support for citizen education, voter mobilization and poll monitoring programs through the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections helped civil society to make a strong case that the April parliamentary contests were flawed. After the violent post-election demonstrations, Moldovan human rights NGOs were able to assist protesters and journalists who were beaten and arrested. When snap elections were called for July, Coalition members sprang into action; their efforts contributed to a better election the second time around. NED continued to be one of the few donors supporting civil society in Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria.

Albania also held hotly contested elections in the summer of 2009, and NED grantees were heavily involved in education and monitoring efforts. Prior to the June parliamentary contests, for example, the leading watchdog organization Mjaft established the “Coalition for Clean Parliament,” a broad civic alliance fostering integrity in politics. The Coalition worked to curb corruption by organizing a broad awareness campaign to rally public support for a less-tainted political environment (see Grantee Spotlight).

In Macedonia, the Association for Citizen Tolerance and Cooperation used humor and satire to encourage constructive debate on challenges facing the country’s democratic progress. Its multifaceted project included a television program in the format of a crime show featuring the case of a character representing democracy, who had been attacked and left for dead.

Given recent progress in Montenegro towards Euro-Atlantic integration, the Endowment funded only one project there in 2009. The Network for the Affirmation of the NGO Sector (MANS) — the country’s premier anticorruption NGO — implemented a wide-reaching campaign to raise public awareness about conflict of interest cases and highlight corruption.

The Endowment also supported projects promoting accountability and civic activism on a regional basis, particularly in the areas of transitional justice and addressing the crimes of the recent past. A regional civil society initiative to create a truth-seeking body, led by the long-time NED grantee and Democracy Award recipient Natasa Kandic, continued to attract public support; the RECOM initiative gained hundreds of new individual and NGO members in 2009.

NED continued to assist leading NGOs from the EU’s new member states to share their experiences, skills and program models with their counterparts in the Balkans. Several crossborder programs in 2009 also focused on improving government performance. The Prague-based People in Need Foundation, for example, trained Moldovan mayors to better meet the needs of their communities by learning about EU integration policies and how to access EU structural funds.

At the close of 2009, the Endowment brought together more than 350 young activists from across the region to promote crossborder cooperation on common problems that have plagued the region’s transitions. The Belgrade Summit, organized by the Youth Initiative for Human Rights, served as a call to action for young people committed to promoting the reforms necessary for European integration and a more peaceful, democratic and European Western Balkans.