Democracy and Governance: Europe Regional Program
The Development Challenge:
USAID's review of country performance, which takes into account over two dozen transition indicators, shows that although considerably beyond Eurasian countries with respect to key democratic, economic, and social transition measures, the Southeast European transition countries lag behind the "northern tier" European countries that have graduated from bilateral USAID assistance. While moving in the right direction, they still face a number of obstacles to reach these reform targets and ensure a sustainable transition. Unresolved ethnic tensions lay below the surface and could easily re-emerge without institutional mechanisms for inter-ethnic understanding and cooperation. Weak labor markets combined with large youth populations pose special challenges, and corruption remains an issue across the region.
Many of the European transition countries aspire to membership in regional organizations such as the European Union (EU) and NATO, and while countries scheduled for EU accession will gain immediate benefits, there may be a cost to those not yet ready for membership (e.g., The Republic of Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia). These entities are small and poorly integrated among one another, and maintaining momentum for reform among them will be particularly challenging.
(Excerpted from the 2006 Congressional Budget Justification for the Europe Regional Program)
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