Tihomir Žiljak, Public Open University Zagreb
10 years ago, the cooperation of organizations connected within the Danube Network began. Over the past few years, the network has been running and has carried out several projects, and one of the results of this cooperation is the establishment of the NGO Danube-Networkers for Europe (DANET) in 2014. At first glance it looks like it’s all the same or similar as it was ten years ago. But both Europe and the Danube region have changed in these ten years.
Ten years ago, Bulgaria and Romania became new members of the EU (they became members a year before), Croatia was intensively preparing for joining EU. Hungary and Slovenia were still new members (they joined EU in 2004 ). The European Union still seemed like a happy family which most transition countries want to join. But this is also the year when the financial crisis began to spread from America to Europe. This affected the economic development and opportunities for further development. It became evident in what extent Europe is (non) connected, it turned out that the outbreak of the crisis and the future of Europe is being viewed from many different angles (perspectives). Atila Agh has analyzed the Danube region precisely from the perspective of the new member states. These countries have a central geographical and social position and without them it is difficult to understand this region. He concludes that some democratic and institutional deficits in these countries have emerged precisely in the past ten years. They have equally affected the development of societies in those countries as well as the development of the entire region and the implementation of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (endorsed by member states at the General Affairs Council 2011).
In the period when new countries were joining EU (Slovenia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia) migration waves of people seeking a better life began. Unlike the immigration of Germans to the East Danube region, now the citizens of East European countries were heading via the Danube towards the West. Getting acquainted with other cultures and other countries is no longer just a result of tourist and professional visits, but also the life choices of many families. The structure of the population was changing again in the Danube Region, and the rural areas of the East are more and more empty. In the region of former Yugoslavia, recent wars have also led to migration and changes in the structure of the population. At the edges of the Danube Region, a new crisis emerged in this period. The Ukrainian crisis has become more than just an issue of Government legitimacy and joining EU, and Ukraine itself entered the state of war.
Migrations were also taking place outside EU. In 2015, a migration crisis began in which hundreds of thousands of people headed to the West passing through the Danube region. They came from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and other countries from which they were driven away by war or poverty. Some of the Danube region countries have accepted them and allowed them to continue their journey to Germany, Sweden, and France. Others closed their borders, built razor wire fences and sent the army to the border. Fear of immigrants fear that their own social security and culture are endangered, fear of job losses was stronger than the sense of human solidarity. The economic and migrant crises have helped strengthen populist movements that have less and less understanding for those who are different from us, who are coming even though we did not call them. Their pain is not necessarily our concern. Compassion and Christian culture (and concern for the fellow human beings) which in Europe is so often emphasized, here is lost or only our compatriots are seen as the fellow human beings, those who are members of the same church, the same nation, and preferably those who share the dominant political views. Is the Danube region still a region that connects or has it become the political boundary between East and the West, the frontier towards non-Christian cultures? Can the arguments regarding economic, ecological, cultural and energy connections (present in the EU regional strategy) be louder than the voices that prioritize national borders, preserving exclusively their own identities and abandoning interculturalism?
The DANET network is based on the idea of connecting citizens and civil society organizations. And this idea was nurtured in many cross-border meetings, social gatherings, and mutual acquaintance. This way, many friendships were made and mutual understanding was improved. This is the form that even Umberto Eco considered as the most important form of creating new Europeans which started with the Erasmus program for university students, and he thought it should be extended to taxi drivers, plumbers, and all other professions and citizens. Are the political elites, however, still open to the free movement of ideas across borders and free cooperation between civil society organizations. Not all elites are so open anymore. Suspicion of hidden intentions of NGOs is getting stronger, and the borders are not open to civil cooperation in all countries. The Danube is divided. Will the Danube remain a river that connects or will the Danube region be the area where Europe closes towards the east, where the boundaries do not connect but separate? DANET is a network that clearly opts for connecting, openness and cooperation that will include not only the goals of economic development and competitiveness but also respect and cooperation with citizens from neighboring countries, building bridges to other communities. We hope that in doing that we will not be lonely.