SARAJEVO (Bosnia and Herzegovina), June 23 (SeeNews) – Although the economies ofin Southeast Europe (SEE) are moving forward, unemployment, a dire economic situation and corruption remain pressing issues, the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC), an organisation fostering partnership in the Balkans and their Euro-Atlantic integration, said.
The Balkan Barometer 2016 survey which was unveiled in Sarajevo on Tuesday, shows that although the interviewees see the first signs of the region’s economic recovery, they still believe that lot of work needs to be done in order to address key issues, RCC said in a statement sent to SeeNews on Tuesday.
In response to the survey's question, "How many people in your family who are able to work are unemployed?", 29% of all interviewees said one person, 17% said two people, while 8% said 3 or more people.
When asked to judge their social status, 23% of all surveyed participants said they are below average, only 2% down on last year.
Aside from the repetitive concerns with unemployment, the economic situation and corruption, the dissatisfaction with politics and policies is on the rise, with 32% of all interviewees judging that giving or taking bribes and the abuse of positions of power are widespread in politics at the national level, RCC noted.
Furthermore, 48% SEE participants totally disagreed with the statement that the law is applied to everyone equally in their economy, while 35% said they have no confidence in courts and the judiciary.
"The insight which stands out the most for me in this year’s findings is that so many interviewees are willing to leave in search for a better future (43% in SEE). Almost every other person surveyed is contemplating leaving their society and look for a job abroad," RCC secretary general, Goran Svilanovic, said in the statement.
The Balkan survey also fount that regional integration is widely supported, but that there is pessimism when it comes to EU integration, Vladimir Gligorov, GfK’s expert consultant for the barometer and researcher at the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, said.
In terms of EU integration, only 39% of all interviewees see membership as a good thing for their economies, while 36% deem it neither good nor bad and 20% a bad thing.
Gligorov commented on the findings by saying that there is “a visible disconnect between economic and social life and political goings on and therefore a widespread crisis of legitimacy”.
The Balkan Barometer is one of the annual monitoring tools used to track progress in the implementation of RCC’s SEE 2020 Strategy when it comes to growth, employment and competitiveness in the region. Published for the first time in 2015, it surveys 7,000 citizens and 1,400 businesses in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia and Macedonia, on a wide range of issues dealing with the political, socio-economic, business and investment climate, infrastructure, rule of law and other developments in the region.