The publication starts with more general perspectives and the consequences of climate change for Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Bulgaria and continues in a second part with energy, using the examples of Croatia, Bulgaria, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. An eDossier by Bilten in cooperation with transform! europe.
The policies proposed by various energy-strategy and climate-mitigation plans in Balkan countries could not be more different than actual political practices. While political elites, mostly corrupted by western European capital, do not even use euphemisms for their practices, grassroot struggles and left political views on the parliamentary level are rare in non-EU countries. This is due to the constant bombardement by various neoliberal ‘reforms’ and at the same time full exposure to a deteriorating political culture imported with capitalism in which any socialist policy is regarded as obscene. Even this year, during the elections for the European Parliament, allegedly left-wing political players publically denounced socialism. Recycling and green practices are still being introduced bottom-up, meaning that parents learn about them from their children, and the infrastructure is extremely weak despite the penalties the EU issues Croatia. Those who are stubborn do not emigrate, while most young and educated people move to the West. The political, just as much as the economic climate is an incentive to emigrate.
This is the context in which Bilten exists and it is precisely the reason for our existence. Our goal is to reconnect Balkan countries separated by wars and right-wing politics. Writing from similar perspectives, we criticise our respective countries, emphasising that our political and economic problems are not, in fact, the result of our backwardness, of our alleged social underdevelopment, and the like. We criticise such racist and colonial perspectives, instead placing the issues we tackle in a broader social, economic, and historical context. The reason for this and other publications done in collaboration with transform! europe is to concretise these abstract conception.
Our texts are journalistic, not academic, and our publications are compilations of some selected texts already published on Bilten but now translated into English for international audiences.
The publication consists of two parts. It starts with more general perspectives and the consequences of climate change for Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Bulgaria and continues with energy, using the examples of Croatia, Bulgaria, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Both parts conclude with contributions from transform!
Andrea Milat
Editor in Chief, Bilten
Please find the eDossier on the left/below (mobile version) in ‘Documents’ (English and Serbo-Croatian, PDF).
Table of Contents
Introduction, Andrea Milat
Climate Change
Climate change and energy in the Balkans: where there’s smoke, there’s fire, Saša Petrović
Hidden Interests in Bosnia’s Energy Business, Mario Kikaš
Mining and the anti-mining struggles in North Macedonia, Adela Gjorgjioska
If you have no oxygen, breathe CO2, Jana Tsoneva
Clean Air is a basic human right, Manuela Kropp
Energy Systems
Taxing the sunshine, Andrea Milat
Is there a point to the Feed-in tariffs without industry?, Goran Jeras
Bulgarian Lessons: Liberalism as Market Power plus Expensive Electrification of the Whole Country, Jana Tsoneva
Energy Transition of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Haris Husarić
The disputed question of (de)centralized planning, Roland Kulke