Viral vulnerability: How the pandemic is making democracy sick in the Western Balkans
The covid-19 crisis has accentuated Western Balkans countries’ pre-existing vulnerabilities – but has not brought about a new political era in the region
Experts & Staff
Beáta Huszka
ECFR Alumni · Visiting Fellow
Areas of expertise
Nationalist mobilisation; ethnic conflict studies; framing of independence movements; bilateral conflicts in the Western Balkans; EU enlargement and the role of human rights in the EU's enlargement policy; minority rights litigation in Central Eastern Europe
Languages
Hungarian, English, German, conversational Serbian
Biography
Beáta Huszka was a visiting fellow at ECFR focusing on policy issues in Southeast Europe. She is an MSCF fellow at ELIAMEP (Athens, Greece) and completed her Ph.D. at the Central European University in 2010. From 2013 to 2017, she led a work package of the EU’s FP7 project FRAME researching the role of human rights in the EU’s external relations. She is the author of the book Secessionist Movements and Ethnic Conflict (Routledge, 2014). Her current research projects focus on bilateral conflicts in the Western Balkans, EU enlargement and minority rights litigation in Central Eastern Europe.
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In the media
Governments there have often taken ‘selective and arbitrary approaches to applying restrictions’ and sometimes used ‘these measures to silence their critics and opponents.’
The article refers to the latest policy brief on the covid-19 measures in the Western Balkans
Beata Huszka on the relevance of the European perspective for the Western Balkans