Interview with UK Ambassador to the SCG, David Gowen
Mr. Ambassador, you talked today about the freedom of movement of goods, services, trade… Where are the people in all of that? I can appreciate that noone likes having to get a visa to travel. I can say, on the behalf of the British embassy, that we try to do this as easy and quick as possible. We issue 99 percent of the visas in the same day, and we also issue a longer visas, half a year or a year, so that people can enter Britain as many times as they want. I can quite see that there is a contradiction, if one is looking at the borders picture, because the aim of the countries that want to become part of the EU is to become a part of one massive common travel space, where you are not only able to travel on business or on holidays, to go to London, or Berlin or Paris, but you will also have the right to work there. When a country joins the EU, its citizens also become the citizens of the European Union and can enjoy all those rights. I can see the frustration in the mean time, in the fact that all of these countries have a visa regime. All I can say, I am sure that the European Countries will keep this under review. From our own point of view, we will have the visa regime only to the point when it is strictly necessary, and we will try to administer the regime in a way that will make it as easy as possible. But, there will be a change there, and one of the benefits of joining the EU is that you will enter an area where you can not only travel freely, but also go an live and work in an another part of the EU. There will be a period of adaptation, which is why this process will take time. When those changes have taken place, in the justice and home affairs, efficiency of policing, changes in finances structures, I am quite sure that the visa regime will be abolished quite a long time before these countries of the region actually join the EU. (listen the answer, posted on OneWorld Radio for the SEE) The overall feeling here is that Governments are monopolizing the integration processes and they jealously guard that position, because of the obvious political advantages it brings with it. What can the Civil sector do, how can it join the process? I think there are a lot of opportunities. This is something that I am very interested in. I have helped to arrange for a well-known London based think tank “The Center for European Reform”, to organize a seminar in Belgrade with Sonja Liht, Ivan Vejvoda and the Centre for Political Excellence. This, in fact, helped to launch a paper by an expert called Judy Bath, which is called “The European Union’s New Borderlands”. It looked at the question of lifting the borders and opening trade. You will find that the European Commission office here has a lot of information, is spreading that information, organizes seminars. There are also a lot of independent organizations and think tanks all over Europe, and I think that it is my job, and also the job of the NGOs here, is to get all those experts to come to the countries of the region. I don’t think there is a lack of information. Actually, the seminar today is serving an extremely usefull purpose. The NGOs that can access the information, who can engage the public are doing a very good service. Obviously, the governments are the ones that have to conduct negotiations, make the decisions, turn to the electorate, hold referendums and get the political backing for what they do, but I think that the information about the conditions, about what has to be done is very readily obtainable, and the Commission, under Chris Patten is very keen to push it out. (listen the answer on the OneWorld Radio for SEE) You spoke today about the interest of the countries in the region to enter the EU. What is EU’s interest in the integration of these new countries? The British view of this process is, the more members you have, the greater economic strength you will have for the Union, and maybe the greater diversity in the Union as well. It also has a very important political significance as well. Look at the EU as it now stands, and look at the events of the 1990’s in the Balkans. If the countries of the Balkans can join the EU, accepts its standards and terms, this will go a long way to creating a condition which will help individual countries to solve some of the issues that were left from the effects of the 1990’s, and probably, problems that antedate that. So, I think that it is a question of existing members gaining and other people loosing. It is very much a win-win situation. Membership will be helpful to countries, because it will help open boundaries, borders, it will open horizons. It helps the region because it enables it to work more coherently and efficiently, and I think that the mutual approach that comes with the membership help to resolve the problems in the region. (listen the answer on OneWorld Radio for SEE). |
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