Conclusions and Strategic EU Reform Perspectives

The Stability Pact represents an unparalleled intervention of networked international organizations in a poor region. With a combination of technical assistance, trade liberalization and aid plus loan packages the “international community” has tried to jumpstart economic development and to accelerate transformational reforms in the Balkans. The developments so far indicate a shift from national economic policymakers towards international organizations which act in a complex framework which exhibits lack of transparency, consistency and efficiency. The IMF still is a prime example of combining excellent work in some fields and departments with apparently unprofessional work in other areas. The fact that accountability in some international organizations is low is amply borne out by the IMF disaster in Russia where nobody at the IMF seems to take personal responsibility — a strange situation in the world’s most powerful international organization; how can one credibly call for establishing responsibility in countries with an IMF program and leave responsibility at the IMF as an opaque field? All this comes at high costs for the international community since in a period of rapid changes and complex challenges lack of learning in international organizations is dangerous for a world economy with increasing interdependency. If democratic accountability cannot be achieved at least in an indirect manner, the long-term alternatives are either to leave international organizations on their own (leaving them out of democratic control) or to hope that international NGOs — plus the academic community — might become a controlling counterweight for very powerful and influential organizations.