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BRUSSELS, July 6 (FENA) - The Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) revealed results of 2018 edition of the Balkan Barometer (BB), an annual survey of citizens and business communities’ opinion on the situation in the region, in Brussels today. The main findings of the survey show that satisfaction of people and businesses on the overall situation in the region, while still below average, is steadily improving.
Within the research, the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) asked around 100 questions to 1000 citizens in each of the countries of the Western Balkans and to several thousand businessmen and they compared data they received from these two categories, but also comparing it to previous years, because the research has been done for the past four years.
Secretary General of RCC Goran Svilanović stated at today’s press conference in Brussels that image of citizens is improving, but that one of the biggest problems is unemployment, economic image of the country and corruption, FENA reports from Brussels.
It was stated that greater optimism can be expected in the upcoming years and, as it has been the case, citizens of the region are more optimistic about the future than the current situation.
Political stability is a segment which once again turned out to be critical for greater satisfaction with the situation in the state.
Svilanović added that export is a weak point and many businessmen are only placing products on local level, whereas only 12 of them are exporting to other countries.
When it comes to BiH, data has never been worse on perception of citizens compared to the previous four years, the research confirmed and Svilanović added that the research showed that situation in the Federation of BiH is somewhat better than in Republika Srpska.
“We did not do this before, because we have always seen BiH as one state and that will continue,” explained Svilanović.
He added that citizens of Serbia have been most abstained when it comes to the EU and now BiH joined, which was not the case earlier.
He said he hopes that this is only a phase for BiH, adding it has to do with political statements on the upcoming elections in October.
Director for the Western Balkans at the European Commission’s (EC) Directorate-General for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Genoveva Ruiz-Calavera noted that regional cooperation is very important in the EU accession process, but the rule of law and security of all citizens needs to be guaranteed as well.
She said that second important basis for progress and better perception of people are better roads, better connectivity, allocating more funds for so called digital agenda for future generations.
She reminded that the European Commission sent BiH additional questions, stressing that is a good thing because they plan to prepare a good and quality opinion on BiH and its candidate status.
This-year’s Barometer provided interesting data, like the fact that 12 percent of businessmen are still not interested in employing Roma or the fact that 27 percent of them rather employs men than women.
Research also showed that 14 percent of citizens said they were not able to afford basic necessities such as clothes, food, etc., and this percentage was higher last year.
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