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…

• 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
4 US
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 GDP/head index
200
150 population in mil
100
50
0

Figures provided by the Economist Intelligence Unit

 EE Economic overview (3)
EE regions 2004
EE regions 2004

200 600
500
150
400 population (mill)
100 300
200 GDP(US$ bil)
50
100
0 0
Balkans Visegrad CIS (w/o Russia
Russia)

Figures provided by the Economist Intelligence Unit

 EE Economic overview (3)
EE regions 2004
Overall risk

80
70
60
50
40 Overall risk
30
20
10
0

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)
6
10 GDP(US$ bil)
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