Multinational
(International) projects in
Europe with the special
focus on the South Balkans
Session Number: EPM07
Zoran Ljubicic
IBM Netherlands
What should be in a presentation…
And… what is in the presentation…
•
•
•
•
•
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Religions
Politics
Money
Technology
Men and Women
… and no joke…
Easy questions… easy answers!?
• Where are the borders of Eastern
Europe?
• What can we expect when traveling to
EE?
• How different are Easterners from
Westerners?
• Is Eastern Europe really progressing?
• What do we know about EE projects?
• … etc
Introduction - major presentation parts
• Overview of Eastern Europe
• South Balkans
• The major EU-sponsored
programmes in the EE
Overview of Eastern Europe
• Geopolitical and geographical terms
• Cultural quiz
• Travel tips
• Religions
• Common cultural and political traits
• Economic overview
• Personal touch
Geopolitical and geographical
terms
• European Union
• Acceding countries
• Visegrad group
• CIS
• Baltic countries
• Balkans
Eastern Europe
Visegrad, Baltics and Balkans
Cultural quiz
• To kiss, bow or shake hands… or do it all!?
• To tip or not!?
• To deal with facts or with emotions!?
• Women approaching unknown men!?
• To ask for a word or for a signature?
• To discuss history and politics?
Travel tips
• Visas
• Money
• Electricity and video standards
• Time zones
• Communications
• Driving in EE
Major EE religions
• Orthodox Christians
• Roman Catholics
• Muslim
• Jewish
Common EE cultural traits
• Getting very individualistic
• Many people are turning to
religion
• Large majority with Slavic
Origins
Common political traits
• Moving towards Western-type
democracy
• Joining EU
EE Economic overview (1)
GDP growth 2004 - 2008
GDP growth 2004 - 2008
6
5
US
4
Japan
3
EU
2
EE
1
0
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
Figures provided by the Economist Intelligence Unit
EE Economic overview (2)
Comparison 2004
Comparison 2004
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
GDP/head index
population in mil
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La
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Po
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EU
Figures provided by the Economist Intelligence Unit
EE Economic overview (3)
EE regions 2004
EE regions 2004
200
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
150
100
50
0
Balkans
Visegrad
CIS (w/o
Russia)
population (mill)
GDP(US$ bil)
Russia
Figures provided by the Economist Intelligence Unit
EE Economic overview (3)
EE regions 2004
Overall risk
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
Overall risk
10
0
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Figures provided by the Economist Intelligence Unit
Personal view on the business cultural
differences between Netherlands and EE
• long-term persistency vs short-term
achievements
• to-the-point talk vs elaboration
• separate work & life vs interconnected
• advance planning vs improvisation
• getting buy-in vs imposing a decision
South Balkans
• South Balkans = Western
Balkans – Croatia
- Albania
- Bosnia & Herzegovina
- Serbia & Montenegro
- Macedonia
Albania
• 3.1m. Tirana, Albanian language
• Muslims 70%, Orthodox 20%,
Roman Catholics 10%
• Tensions within the ruling party
• Focus on the relationship with the
West, especially with the USA
• “Node a head to say NO”
Bosnia and Herzegovina
• 4.2m. Sarajevo, BSC language
• Two entities (Federation and
Republika Srpska)
• Muslims 40%, Orthodox 31%,
Roman Catholics 15%, others
• Office of the UN High representative
• Three-member presidency
• Still tensions between entities
Macedonia
• 2.0m. Skopje, Macedonian language
• Orthodox 69%, Muslim 27%
• Tensions between Slavic
and Albanian ethnic groups
• Recent death of the President Boris
Trajkovski in a plane crash
Serbia and Montenegro
• 10.7m. Belgrade, Serbian language
(Albanian predominant in Kosovo)
• Orthodox 70%, Muslims 20%, the
others 10%
• Unstable situation in Kosovo
• No indicative table for the EU
accession
South Balkans
Comparison 2003
South Balkans - comparison 2003
12
25
10
20
8
15
Population (mill)
10
GDP(US$ bil)
6
4
2
5
0
0
Albania
BiH
Macedonia
S&M
Figures provided by the Economist Intelligence Unit
Major EU-sponsored programmes and
their budgets for the period 2000-2006
• Phare – €1.5 billion per year
• Sapard - €500 million per year
• ISPA - €1 billion per year
• CARDS - €4.65 billion per year
• Tacis – n/a
Briefly about the programmes (1)
• Provide pre-accession support to the EU
candidate countries (acceding countries plus
Bulgaria and Romania)
- Phare – institution building
- ISPA – large-scale infrastructure projects
in the fields of agriculture and rural
development
- Sapard – for taking on the acquis in the
fields of agriculture and rural
development
Briefly about the programmes (2)
• Tacis – provides grant-financed technical
assistence to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus,
Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova,
Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and
Uzbekistan). Launched in 1991.
• CARDS – assistance to the western Balkans
as part of the Stabilization and Association
process (SAp)
Useful links related to the programmes
• European Union: http://europa.eu.int/
• European Commission:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/index_en.htm
• European bank for reconstruction and
development: http://www.ebrd.com/
• European Investment Bank: www.eib.org
• European Agency for reconstruction:
http://www.ear.eu.int/
Summary 1 (answers to the questions)
• Where are the borders of Eastern
Europe?
– This presentation did not help us to define
the borders of Eastern Europe – there are
ever expanding just like the Universe
• What can we expect when traveling to
EE?
– When traveling to Eastern Europe we can
expect to find a good Internet connection…
afterwards, everything will be easier
• ..etc
Summary 2 (answers to questions)
• How different are Easterners from
Westerners?
– Easterners are getting more similar to
Westerners… and opposite way…
• Is Eastern Europe really progressing?
– Yes, Eastern Europe is progressing towards the
Western Europe that is at the moment
stagnating…
• …etc.
References etc.
• Economic figures used in the
presentation are retrieved from
www.viewswire.com (Economist
Intelligence Unit site)
• The information on the European
programmes in EE collected from the
sites listed in the slide #29
• Most of the information has been
collected during the author’s
involvement in the PMI EU Task Force.
Contact Information
Zoran Ljubicic
Business e-mail:
zoran_ljubicic@nl.ibm.com
Private e-mail:
ljubicic@planet.nl