At the beginning of the 21st century, Macedonia's peaceful post-Yugoslav transition, which had seen the successful negotiation of a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU, was unexpectedly disrupted by military conflict. A group calling itself the National Liberation Army appeared to demand in the name of the Albanians of Macedonia a redefinition of the political arrangements that regulate the national character of the state. After six months of sporadic fighting and continuous negotiations a new constitutional framework, the Ohrid Accord, was eventually signed by the various parties in August 2001.
Where is Macedonia heading over two years after Ohrid? The NLA fighters have been amnestied and formed a new party, the Democratic Union for Integration, which attracted the support of many Albanian voters at the 2002 elections. Along with the Social Democratic Union and the Liberal Democratic Party it is now part of a coalition government. Macedonia is once more at peace, but can we say that the crisis is over and that its negative consequences have been neutralised? Have ethnic tensions peaked? Are economic reforms now back on top of the priority list? Has corruption been curbed and the conditions for a final transfer to a free market established? And, where will Macedonia be two years from now? Is Europe just a distant dream or can it be an imminent reality? Because, surely this is the most pressing as well as the most imponderable Macedonian Question facing the country today.
The participants in this one day conference will try to answer these questions, ask new ones, and position Macedonia on its path towards European integration. Are ongoing socio-economic processes leading Macedonia on a fast-track towards Europe or are they slowing her down? The conference is organised around the major factors that influence the process of European integration from the perspective of past, current, and future developments.
Mr Goran Janev (Macedonian Studies Teacher Fellow, SSEES)
The ethnic war that never happened
Dr Dejan Jovic (Stirling)
Title to be confirmed
Mr Vassilis Maragos (Counsellor for Economic and Political Issues, EU Office Skopje)
Title to be confirmed
Prof. Vladimir Gligorov (Vienna)
Title to be confirmed
For further details and to register for the conference please contact Ms Sasha Aleksić at SSEES. Email: s.aleksic@ssees.ucl.ac.uk, telephone: 020 7862 8557.