site.btaWestern Balkan Nations Have Contributed Much to the World - Former EP Rapporteur for Bulgaria

The nations of Europe, including the Western Balkan counties, have much in common and have contributed so much to global prosperity, said Geoffrey Van Orden, who served as the rapporteur for Bulgaria in the European Parliament during this country’s accession to the European Union. He addressed the seventh Western Balkans Summit in Sofia on Saturday.

At the beginning of his speech, he remarked that his role as a rapporteur for Bulgaria had given him a deep understanding of the country. “In spite of continued political turbulence, Bulgaria has steady economic growth, full employment, low inflation, and is seeing a gradual improvement in the living standards of the people. But there is much to be done,” he said.

“The nations of Europe, including the Western Balkan counties, have much in common and have contributed so much to the world. We have been the engine of global creativity and prosperity. As a matter of urgency, we need to find a new balance between advancing democratic ideals and meeting the strategic security threat. Our ideals of freedom, democracy, and the rule of law are not only worth defending - they are the hope of mankind,” he added.

“We have not only the resources but the resolve to protect that precious inheritance of freedom and to make a better world,” Van Orden said.

He said that “the West was once seen by the rest of the world as a bastion of liberty, democracy, the rule of law and increasing economic prosperity”, adding that “today this is in doubt“. “We now seem to be obsessed by self-flagellation and commitment to the new secular ideology of human rights and its consequences, mass immigration of peoples from other, often alien cultures, and rejection of much of our proud past through corrupted interpretations of our history,” he noted. Some of this is self-generated, much is deliberately fed from outside, he added.

“In my view the greatest necessity is the freedom and security of our nations. We recognize that the world around us has changed dramatically. Thanks in large part to our own example and initiatives, there are now many prosperous countries around the world, poverty has been alleviated but no longer is one great power able to determine the global future. Information technology has been an enormous benefit to mankind. At the same time, false ideas can be spread like wildfires to millions within minutes through social media,” he said.

“In an increasingly transactional world, where the West is no longer such an aspirational model, the autocratic powers and their proxies now feel confident to operate globally and with the aim of destroying prosperity and freedoms,” Van Orden noted. In his words, “our enemies are building their strengths and seducing friendly countries around the world,” including in the Western Balkans.

“This is the backdrop to the most immediate and urgent threat that has unfolded just a few miles away with the Russian attack on Ukraine aiming to recreate that failed Soviet Union and once more impose a Russian sphere of influence that embraces Eastern and Southeastern Europe,” he said. Van Orden added that “Russia is engaged in a hybrid attack on western allies” through “provocation at ally borders, assisting irregular migration, malicious cyber activities, electronic interference, economic coercion, disinformation campaigns, and malign political influence”.    

“The West, every nation needs to rearm, to upgrade its military capabilities, strengthen its defence industry and focus on a NATO alliance,” Van Orden said. “The transatlantic alliance needs to be strengthened, not chopped in half. You are constantly being told that America is turning its back on Europe, recycling its attentions, pivoting to Asia, and that Donald Trump wants to take America out of NATO. Nothing could be further from the truth,” he said.

He added that “what we need is more military capability backed by political will, not new structures”.

Van Orden described the Western Balkans as a diverse region with a declining population, currently at about 16 million. He noted that just over a century ago, it provided the spark that ignited the most devastating war in history.

“Now three of the six states in this region are NATO members. At its summit in Washington in July, NATO recognized the Western Balkans as an area of strategic importance for the Alliance. But for reasons of history, and of economic and energy needs, Russia and China again have a foothold,” he said.

China has now reinserted itself in the region, sensing the need for infrastructure development, Var Orden added. “Hesitancy by the West in embracing this region has enabled Russia to maintain influence through its connections with political parties, the Orthodox Church, and state services, but most significantly, through its grip on the energy sector,” he noted.

“Russia has enormous weaknesses. Its war against Ukraine has cost it dearly. Its army has suffered some 600,000 casualties. That is equivalent to the whole population of Montenegro,” Van Orden said. “Russia does not have the resource to play a significant global role and we see this in Syria at the moment,” he said, adding that “an economy reliant on oil and gas is highly volatile and unstable”.  

Van Orden concluded by saying that “we must strengthen the cohesion of our nations, educate our young people of the reality of the threat we face”, stressing on the need to restore confidence and hope. “Democracy and prosperity had been hard won over many centuries but they can easily be lost and take many generations to recover,” he said.