the problem with european is asian and the e.u. enlargement process in the west and balk and is the application of the model and we say this was a bit on both sides european officials don't apply as they did in the ninety's for example but also the western balkans leaders tried to escape when they ever day and the kind of rule that would make them follow the line now 1st of all let's agree on the terms you mentioned here a piano zation what is it specifically what values what feature make up the war of the european athens in whose image they are there is have to be remade well it's it's been set up all of the in the beginning of the ninety's and it's still like that night in $93.00 copenhagen create tyria establish are all over law functioning market economy for democracy and within democracy protection of

minority rights the problem is that in the western balkans. after 2000. and especially over the past the 78 or 10 years we have of the climb better visible decline in all of these crew so the market is not functioning efficiently according to. the competitive gritty of you know we have democratic decline very visible democracy decline. we have not always but we have problems with protection of minorities. in some places or at least some kind of problem with between majority and minority but the major problem is the will of law we simply not only serbia but everywhere in the western balkans have a judiciary and public prosecutors which are under the heavy influence of politicians now i know that you specifically identify state capture that is the misuse of state funds for private and political benefit as the main obstacle to

your europeanization but i would say that this kind of france seeking and self-serving behavior could be found within the court itself in countries like cyprus or italy do you think you're of the old to your has itself leaned up to the standards of the europeanization that it tries to hold others to you could also have mentioned the paul or. hungary right over the past several years right the problem with the origin of the problem is that the european union the is not able to solve this problem within utopian you know with these crimes because hungary czech republic paul and are the members of the european union right now and you. capture there are you also. the theater nation of other very important to have established member they're not able to solve this there of course

then they are not able to solve this in the west and baucus when this is running much much. larger scale. the in this country it's always been a bit counter to many observers that former soviet satellites like bulgaria romania poland became members of the european union before the constituent parts of former and on the line yugoslavia having looked at how those various countries measure against the e.u. yardsticks are you sure that it's always been a function of jaynie and democratic or economic development rather than let's say geo political expediency i would say that is one of the geopolitics in this process and of course the european union wants to bring to take in these countries become some kind of shields. other other countries especially russia

maybe some some other countries but i think the. in 1809 when the berlin wall came down i think that the during the night these and even after 2000 the majority the prevalent mood in discounted is was that they want to join european. paul and sort of example when this goes without saying just like paul right so they wanted to join european union more than anything else because they want to solve some kind of protection from russia this is all that matters right that would be about the countries wanting to join i mean obviously much of eastern europe and that i wanted to join not only because of the quality of democratic institutions but i assume also because of the quality of life and economic benefits but speaking about poland you mentioned that there has been a deterioration in democratic progress across eastern until within 5 cross western europe lately and. you know the popular narrative in the west is that in countries

where russia is present that's understandable because russia is supporting autocratic tendencies etc but poland is very notable. example contrary to die theory because it's been staunchly and to russian for a number of years and yet as we all know there's been a backsliding on democracy how do you explain it and isn't it perhaps isn't it perhaps an indication that the way people thought about democratization. 20 years ago is not accurate it's far more complex and perhaps violence lay near than i would say i would explain the polish case very similar to the one gettin case and some cases in the western balkans all has to do with the way how the countries were democrats and what happened with the distribution of resources basic resources i think that in in polish case and other cases i mention the 1st couple of decades some of them. improving of material wealth or whatever it is i'm but the genuinely

these these people they saw the whole process unjust or unsafe there is a polish origin political scientists. who mention this in 1000 night they won so even the process of democratization europeanization is not fair so that everybody stand to benefit dogs who are the losers they will get back and they will the strike back so i think this is what's happening in poland this is what's happened what's happening i'm going to this what's happening in serbia and some western balkan countries so i have self-awareness and germany and these are your money doria that's right so and now there comes the opinion you and the enlargement process this self i think that the european officials don't really recognize that so they don't they support i mean when it comes to the balkan countries they support the balkan out of credits they simply pay no attention to what's happening today and i think this is what is genuinely putting the whole thing in danger let

me just mention one thing for example in a couple of years back in serbia. group of masked people tore down several factors of houses and buildings in the downtown of belgrade. 3 years on we have no idea what happened who did that the public prosecutor is not saying anything and the european union is not saying don't do such or. such or huge violation of the rule of law now this is the most interesting part that this could have never been told that the german in berlin this could have never been tolerated yes european officials mentioned this at no point while at this point here are not officially a member of the european every night they have an excuse of not interfering in into their fares all obey that they can into the theater because there are certain chapters which set certain standards that the aspiring countries has to fulfill and

those shouts of 22242324 it's long been believed that the enlargement policy at has dual objectives democratizing eastern european countries as well as fulfilling the e.u. foreign policy agenda one element of which is to keep russia at bay to keep its influence minimized and yet i get it from your writing that it it's not always working as intended and sometimes they say and to russians trick is actually contributing to the rise of autocratic leaders and these toleration of the lack of the rule of law that you mention how does it work so in some confidence you will find the other objective about have an icon to the democrat ties and then at the same time be. serving as a shield against russia is work for sample taken for example montenegro despite very massive population support popular support for russia to need to be an

leader to somehow manage to get the government and you go into nato and you know induction of all democratic way are right but it doesn't really have to work so supporting out the krauts in the ball. once kudos. ends the way you did in one thing you don't so it will become one day part of the european union needs all of the part of nato but it would be it could end up in a different way so one of some of these countries could go closer to russia so serbia is run of this country which is neither here nor there in the foreseeable future it will surely never become part of nato but will go closer to russia we don't know that public service cause a part of. the same thing is on the other north mustard on the under the rule of nikola whoever skit was doing the same thing so and he was heavily supported by the

european official i mean one of the foreign minister was even coming to his electoral rally a couple of days before the elections to give him pats on the back and they give him up a european supporter do i understand you correctly because i mean they they can pickle a european narrative has that mosque a supporting autocrats because they are more amenable to. the kremlin from the herion a. essentially saying that brussels is guilty of the same charge that it supports leaders with finds more amenable or easier to deal with that it is for stability or for geopolitical purposes i would say it's maybe not in this war but i would say if we see in the future that some balkan countries are driving away from european these asian union then going closer to russia one part of the responsibility will be with utopian the solutions and so the whole process of a large meant i think have to be rethought if you will especially when it comes to

its applicability how you are ply all these standards are you consistent double standards maybe somewhere that's i think what should be rethought 3rd as you mentioned is an interesting example because it tries to strike a balance between the e.u. and russia and there are multiple at. ization that president which is has been is european power controlling of the media etc but he also appointed the 1st openly gay prime minister which is a major progressive milestone for this country is serbia indeed more european that is then it used to be is it being europeanized or is it just trying to look at a part you know. prime minister who is openly gay but that's will say i mean they could terms of. promoting european values because the major thing states capture extraction of publicly sources from private ben and this is what's going on right now even

a gay prime minister is not really putting be seen then ger the political elite these 5 with and with many other things right as as long as extraction is untouched the state capture is untouched everything is acceptable and even the european union is acceptable at the moment in this i think that the major thing that european officials have to understand the moment european officials seriously questions about extraction about state capture in the west and balk as they will get in the conflicts in serious conflict with the latest well professor polish we have to take a short break we'll be back in just a few moments. what

explains the bipartisan commitment to understanding wars in foreign military interventions recent polls show the majority of veterans who fought in this century's foreign wars say it wasn't worth it in 2016. from game traction for doubting foreign adventures to day told see god we're just doing the same why are the elites someone to. be always still got us into a tirade in d.c. that's who could sneak. over there cook a description of the new you. could want to think about getting out of your canadian each room until we're all going to miss all. the eat too much haha good to

be out it's all you can find on the author to get those people to fail when i'm in the good children tell them with all this you can tie one next time you don't come fall through the market within you know. most people think just stand out in this business you need to be the 1st one on top of the story or the person with the loudest voice of the biggest raid in truth to stand out of the lose business you just need as the right questions and demand the right answer.

question. welcome back to worlds apart in addition publication associate professor difficulty of political science at the university of belgrade professor before the break we talked about how the large one is perceived outside the e.u. let's now discuss about how it's seen on the inside i'm sure you've seen this latest interview 'd in the economist magazine the french president a man gave and he firmly stated that there would be no further e.u. enlargement until the membership procedures are formed do you take that as just photo sharing which is not entirely foreign to mishear micron or do you think it's a wider shot as far as the e.u. neighborhood policies concerned i think that the. french president actually

expressed the idea which is pretty consistent with what we've been talking in the 1st part of the interview and this is that everybody sees that something is going wrong with the process of course what part of the problem is not only is not happening in the western balkans but part of the problem is in european union itself because the union is undergoing pretty huge. changes and i think that some things that he mentioned in this interview holds for a total revision of the whole approach to european union rights for example one thing that i think is very important is that there is that there was a huge change in the us and the us was a country which basically security. for european union right now this country is now changing mr trump wins yet another term this is 4 years of this change that will be applied and everybody will feel the consequences not this

. calls for reform of the of the position of the european union in the world right now you have on your borders countries like russia you have chinese or somebody there is terry k. 30 war in syria this is war ready close your door maybe we should think about already organisation a security system and if we do this what kind of position the western balkans country should be. going to understand well what i think if it was not only about the western balkans per se i mean he was speaking about that and the larger context accepting new members and we all know that he wasn't just you know putting ideas on the table france is actually blocking membership talks for any and north of the cydonia it has come up with its own system 7 step system of i think

they call it a gradual association not even accession do you think there is any chance of that system being accepted by are they are people countries given that they all call statements a historic mistake do they have a choice not to i think it's going to some version of this will be accepted because it's a very nice way to have a cake and eat it still read so they know without saying no he will say ok we are continuing our on our path of integrating more confidence but essential is going to be a prolonged or a long long way until we reach the 7 step right there with my beasts several decades right you could see immediately after they explicitly say as the european officials explicitly said no to the north macedonians in the binya what kind of problem it cause i mean so pretty basic diplomatic rule is don't say no explicitly

just to put it in some kind of. very nice wording good that ever. but you want something in that same interview president across the thinking about the e.u. neighborhood policy in terms of access to the e.u. was quote absurd what else could the european union offer a to this neighborhood if it's not very remold. prospect of joining them what else. you know i don't think that. there is anything else but some kind of hope of the song or a way that these countries will become you members if this is of the mood of the table i think that we can forget about any kind of neighboring policy so. countries here want to call part of the media in the western balkans want to cooperate with them because there is some kind of. in the end of the tunnel there's a light that the light is not very 'd material i mean like you cannot feed of their life you cannot deny them to live i mean given the what you talk about extraction

state extraction i mean from the point of view of relief that's. i'm just going back to my previous thought so you have to give them some kind of hope and then you will have them as somebody who will cooperate with you if you shut this down this channel down and say look we are not you are not going to be members in any foreseeable future but let's try to be neighbors i don't think this would really help the plans that european union has for itself because as i said wanted to argue the current. e.u. enlargement process is actually doing. some very thing itself so the interest that the european union has on the balkans is actually working on the long ground against european union now the reason i ask you that question was because while the prospect of enlargement in practical terms is very slim many european

officials are still talking about this range and in very possessive terms for example the incoming president of the european commission their sole of one that i said just the other day that if the e.u. fails to offer a european perspective to the western balkans then others and she named china russia turkey and even saudi arabia will fill the gap do you think that you can still. count on exclusivity or if you will monogamy on the head of the countries in this region i think is unfair to ask for that no i think it is but that's what i'm on no must go on wanted to express so we have to rethink the whole thing that i think that he didn't say anything more than that and this is very true if dupion noonan pulls itself out of this area or somebody else will come and they'll get it doesn't have to be either or why couldn't it be you know china's influence influence here helping to build

a railroad russian influence or russian presence here helping to by the 3rd been inviting european influence here helping to strengthen the institutions i mean this is how you would normally think about international cooperation and yet when it comes to the western balkans it's either you belong to me or you belong to them i would say that the countries and people function as family so there is a european family there is about the within european family knows about the family they somehow feel some sort of want to your father your mother right there when there isn't a certain age when you can move out of here house and get married then to have your own children and well that's what i would always held. sort of my kids and my parents the kids and pet as i don't know by that absolutely but it doesn't mean that you absolutely should be held hostage to them and you have no rights you engage with them i don't think that anybody is held hostage the preowned is that in the western balkans we have a discussion on going discussion for 30 years whether we are europeans are not

humble in serbia this is very very hard to debate and we are not able ourselves to decide these issues or we in russia believe that we are here and they don't know about the you're referring to believe that they are predominantly european culture which doesn't preclude us from trading with the east in fact they have this could be an advantage of integrating both in fla. into international relations the theater from somebody else for another who will who is who will knock on your door and plunder and kill you or your compatibility is very is very strong for example the fear of fresh air coming in knocking on your door getting into europe and the present a threat is very very very alive still a so the large one process may be one of the most important components. incorporate these countries which used to belong which were closer to russia in the

past and have them now because you feel stronger in the families or smaller countries now the if you ask of people in poland what do you feel about this 99 percent will give you a clear answer if you ask people here in serbia about this you 1000 such a clear cut answer now speaking about this fear of somebody coming and plundering your house or killing a loved ones i'm sure it's a very salient fear in this region and i don't want to dwell on the crown's interview too much but i think it was remarkable in a in a sense of how often here for it's you sovereignty i counted 9000 references now in this region in particular most of the conflicts in former yugoslavia started when people wanted to either expand or accomplish their suffering or to challenge somebody else's sovereignty given this new we rediscovered interest insolvency within the european union what implications do you have do you think it has for the

western balkans. when mccrone says running to think what he has in mind is to think more about the interests of european nations rather than the interests of the us and the western balkans the i think is not still in the picture because as i said i think that he actually called for some kind of free thinking about the whole the whole model of european union not only about the island about the enlargement notice of the word serenity would mean we matter more we are not going to listen to what other people say other masters of our own decided we decide who to be friends where. couldn't the followings if the european union if the united states wants to get the conflict with russia we shouldn't allow that the this involves. incorporates us into this kind of conflict and the implications of these theory is by extension that if you won and the crown specifically said that we should be able to be. not to be enemies with the enemies of our friends if you believe that on the

european level it applies to the western balkans as well you cannot claim this region only to yourself and that leads me into i guess my final question. there are people of the european union for many countries for many peoples here is not only democratic but it's also can all mc and as the e.u. economic clout in their region diminishes the cloud of many other powers be china turkey russia saudi arabia trailer or any mention is on the rise as those powers are trying to invest in the balkans do you think the process of democratization is going to stall are they going to revert to more a very leaky author in terrorism or do you think the social development will continue you know as barack obama like to repeat that you know they they are sure history and i sure hear things what the european union as i said a lot of should understand firstly that with such

a high level of state cop. in the western balkans that there won't be any kind of strong economy growth in the foreseeable future or so i think that that's the that's a given right now. it's beautifully on integration doesn't provide stronger economic growth them or not the wealth or maybe as i said that some countries will turn to the east doesn't necessarily mean that they will become more autocratic it's may or may not i mean it's difficult to say because you know within the european integration process they become more of the craft that so you know maybe doesn't really have anything to do with whether they go east or west it seems that both sides are able to call it a certain level of a caucus and hopefully they will also be able to encourage their level of democracy professor polish we have to leave it there thank you very much for being with us thank you i encourage our viewers to keep this conversation going i social media pages and hope to syria again same place same time here and all the part of.

their. descriptions sound up to tell using even for the owners so how to choose pet food industry is telling us what to feed our pets really more based on what they want to sound less than was necessarily good for the pet turns out food may not be as healthy people believe we have animals that have you know diabetes and. they have

auto immune disorders allergies we are actually creating these problems is a huge epidemic of problems i believe can be linked to a very simple problem of diet and some dog owners so heartbreaking stories about their pets last treats the larger corporations are not very interested in proving or disproving the value of their food because they're already making it a $1000000000.00 on it and there's no reason to do that research. i guess. feel. i.

was like oh shut up supporters of bolivia's ousted president clashed with police during the funeral of a killed protester i think speaks to even less about what's happening in his country. but i just saw a witness at the trump impeachment hearings claims that russia is planning to meddle in the 2020 us presidential election and also to come benjamin netanyahu who is charged with bribery fraud and breach of trust to the 1st criminal indictment of a sitting israeli prime minister and looks set to deepen the country's political crisis.