Improve border crossings to help cross invisible boundaries

Kiron Reid is a former law lecturer at the University of Liverpool, former diplomat, and a volunteer professor at Zaporizhzhia National University in southeast Ukraine. For two and a half years 2020 – 2022, he worked with the OSCE Mission to Serbia as the only international diplomat based full time in the border region with Kosovo and North Macedonia. He writes:

The usual turbulent politics are roiling the Western Balkans. Students are protesting in Serbia. Kosovo is facing the prospect of repeat elections, the fourth in two years. Ethnonationalist politics as usual dominate in Bosnia and Macedonia.

Small steps lead in the right direction

Tens of thousands of citizens, diaspora, and tourists traveling through the Western Balkans will face bottlenecks at border crossings.

But Western Balkan governments can take small, inexpensive, practical steps to improve life for their citizens. These steps would encourage people of all ethnicities to mix more freely and communicate more openly. That could help understanding and recognition of past losses and crimes, encouraging coexistence if not reconciliation. These steps will not end injustice but can help those living in the Balkans begin to stem or even reverse the exodus of skilled young people.

Some specifics

Serbia has promised for many years to upgrade and open extra crossing points with Kosovo and North Macedonia. Doing it would reduce delays, increase employment, increase economic activity and ease tension. Upgrades are needed at three crossing points with Kosovo (Končuljm, Mutivode, and Dobrosin).

The already prepared crossing at Kapi near Sijarinska Banja, Medvedja (on Kosovo side R216 road) should be opened. For North Macedonia, Serbia needs to open one crossing (Miratovac – Lojane near Preševo/ Preshevë) and create another (on the old road no. 158 parallel to Presevo/Tabanovce). The latter is the main crossing between Serbia and North Macedonia on the route from Vienna to Athens or Thessaloniki. It also serves much traffic through the Western Balkans. It is perpetually clogged.

The benefits

Upgrading and opening more crossings will not only attract more travelers but also encourage more businesses at the borders and employ more local people, including local minorities like Albanians and Roma. It would improve the experience for tourists, freight drivers, and traders. Quicker journeys would be a win for both the travelers and the region.

Border crossing cooperation could also improve relations among Serbia, Kosovo, and North Macedonia. Official contacts required at the borders would encourage professionalism.

What needs to happen

The Americans had it right in the first Trump Administration, when Richard Grenell tried to emphasize economic cooperation. Likewise, Edi Rama and Aleksandar Vučić were right to advocate reduced barriers at the borders in their Open Balkans initiative.

I’ve crossed Serbia’s borders many times. Belgrade talks the talk, takes the EU money, and does nearly nothing. It is time to insist that the borders in the Western Balkans open up.