2007 was a year of historical significance for a number of countries in South Eastern Europe (SEE). It started with the wrap-up of a decade-long process, the European Union accession of Bulgaria and Romania on January 1 this year.

The two countries entered the EU amid an enlargement fatigue within the Union that is likely to shut the EU door to incumbent candidates for a while. The entry, however, has assigned both nations a new role that they have slowly started to live up to. From having been recipients, Bulgaria and Romania were now expected to become donor countries both in terms of financing and know-how. Both countries have also been busy developing their operational programmes to take advantage of EU structural and cohesion funds. They are still under the EU’s close watch as the European Commission ostracised the countries for lack of sufficient compliance with EU regulations. Among areas in need of special attention,  as highlighted in the European Commission’s progress reports mid-year, are agriculture, the judiciary, corruption, organised crime and red tape.

The SEE countries that are close on the two countries’ heels are Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia, yet only Croatia has been ahead in terms of completion of negotiations on chapters. And the top performer in EU terms is Slovenia. The country, which early this year was the first country among the EU 2004 entrants to join the Eurozone, was scheduled to assume the rotating presidency of the European Commission on January 1 2008.

The new political demarcations this year continued with a number of elections. Bulgaria and Romania carried out their first ever elections for European Parliament. Bulgaria was the headstarter and showed that a newly-coined party, GERB, was well-placed for a better positioning in Bulgarian politics in the future. Romania had its EP elections late in the year and had them coupled with a referendum on the uninominal voting system. The referendum, in what was largely interpreted as a fracas between president and prime minister, saw president Traian Basescu emerge victorious.

While Greece, Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo held their general elections, Turkey voted both for parliament and president. The country’s democratic Islamists won a landslide victory in July and afterwards selected Abdullah Gul as the first politician with Islamic roots to enter the presidential palace since the formation of the Turkish Republic in 1923. The double elections marked the flagging influence of the secular establishments in the country, and of the Turkish army, in particular, for lack of new political ideas versus the reverse, busy modernisation, on the part of the pro-Islamic parties.

The victory of the Islamists did not hinder the country’s aspirations for EU accession. Neither did it infringe on the country’s plans to offset what it dubbed a threat to national security – the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The offensive against the terrorist organisation stayed top of the headlines worldwide as parliament, government and the army were resolute in chasing the guerrillas across the border to their cells in northern Iraq. The threat of military intervention was as real as to prompt a meeting between a number of US and Turkish officials at the highest level to offset the prospect. For the time being, Turkey limited itself to isolated air attacks on cells identified as a result of an intelligence sharing agreement with the US.

Greece suffered its worst fires in decades. The fires that devastated the country’s Pelopponesian peninsula and incurred billions of euro in losses, however, brought the best orchestrated support from EU countries; sending helicopters, fire-fighters and medical staff to assist. The fire, that pervaded neighbouring countries as well, led to recognition of a need to create an emergency unit within the EU to address all kinds of natural disasters. The fires also saw a co-ordinated response from the country’s government. The programme, swiftly drafted and giving out hefty reimbursements to victims, won Costas Karamanlis a second term as prime minister and a narrow victory for his party in parliament.

And Kosovo, the UN-administered Serbian enclave whose status was high on the international agenda year-round, appeared about to emerge and venture for a declaration of independence early in 2008. Chances of a breakthrough in the eight-year stalemate appeared high despite sturdy opposition from Serbia and its staunchest supporter, Russia, and because of the growing support from the majority of the EU, the US and the UN. Even though four-month negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia, as brokered by the EU-US-UN troika, ended in failure, Kosovo was hopeful that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon would come up with a pro-independence opinion. This nod, expected in mid-January 2008, is set to pave the way to the creation of yet another country on the Balkan landscape.