Though there were still difficult ethnic relations, the majority of the Ohrid’s provisions passed into law(79). With regard to economy, reforms helped the Macedonian economic system to improve and the situation began to stabilize. Nevertheless, unemployment remained a major concern and without forgetting that the final status of Kosovo’s situation made the atmosphere uncertainty. As for refugee problem, the Ohrid agreement helped the return of a mass of refugees(80). At the beginning of the interventions, more than 33,000 refugees were still in Kosovo. One year later, it fell under to 3,000 refugees.
An equitable balance was achieved in the civil administration but it was noticed that only fifteen percent of the minority was represented. As result, corruption was a continuing issue in spite of efforts made by the government.
But the success of state building depended on the political situation of the country. During the crisis, the government was given a government of national unity(81). Thanks to the Ohrid provisions, Albanian was made an official language which was finally used in the public institutions. In 2002, the elections led to an Albanian coalition with the social democrats, which was a sign of stability.
All these measures helped the economic stability of the country. Moreover, the Macedonian economy made more progresses than expected. Most prices were market-driven and a lot of firms began to be privatized(82). The inflation was under control and the fiscal balance was in surplus with a restored economic growth.
In 2002, the new government decided to reduce public spending. The government deficit fell of 6.2 percent of GDP in 2001 to 1.5 percent of GDP in 2003(83).
As noticed before, unemployment was still an important problem. Joblessness was high before the crisis but still very high after the crisis. That might be explained by the contradictory effect of privatisation. On the other hand, foreign direct investment was the other issue. It remained around 2 percent of GDP per annum. Compared with the border countries, it is very low. For instance, Bulgaria received $2.6 billion that is 9.8 percent of its GDP(84). Unemployment remained so the major issue that could cause future nationalist demands and a volatile political situation.
Macedonia represented the first European success under the EU flag. Operations in the country were seen as a major success, both in the Balkans and for Europe. State building in Macedonia was seen as a model for the others parts of the Balkans(85). NATO and the United States contributed largely to the success story(86).
79 James Dobbins, Europe’s role in nation-building: From the Balkans to the Congo, Rand, 2008
80 James Dobbins, Europe’s role in nation-building: From the Balkans to the Congo, Rand, 2008
81 James Dobbins, Europe’s role in nation-building: From the Balkans to the Congo, Rand, 2008
82 James Dobbins, Europe’s role in nation-building: From the Balkans to the Congo, Rand, 2008
83 European Commission, Analytical report for the Opinion on the Application from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia for EU membership, COM 2005, Brussels, pp. 47-50.
84World Development Indicators Database, World Bank.
85 James Dobbins, Europe’s role in nation-building: From the Balkans to the Congo, Rand, 2008
86 James Dobbins, Europe’s role in nation-building: From the Balkans to the Congo, Rand, 2008