Meeting of the SEE Trade Unions Economic Experts’ Network „Impact of COVID pandemic and Ukraine conflict on employment and economies of the Western Balkans countries; Inflation effect on wages – Trade Unions’ activities”

Within the framework of an ITUC-PERC - Swedish “Union to Union” Project support, a meeting of the SEE Trade Unions Economic Experts’ Network took place in Igalo, Montenegro, from 11th to 12th May 2022.

The topic of the meeting was „Impact of COVID pandemics and Ukraine conflict on employment and economies of the Western Balkans countries; Inflation effect on salaries – Trade Unions’ activities”. Trade union economic experts from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Kosovo participated actively in the meeting.
Working languages included English, BSCM and Albanian.
Prof. dr. Bruno Sergi, as a permanent mentor of the Economic Experts’ Network, presented information and data on “Long-term impact of COVID pandemic and conflict in Ukraine on employment and economies of the states”. This was followed by related presentations of the respective Trade Unions’ experts who presented information and data for their individual countries. In general, the Westers Balkans countries have not seen huge changes in terms of employment and in reference to the pandemic because the Governments of all those countries passed certain programmes and measures with the view of mitigating the crisis. However, the war in Ukraine has already caused tremendous crisis and all experts expressed their concern over the continuation of the war and fears regarding some new potential crisis.
With his excellent presentation “Minimum Wages, Inflation and Collective Bargaining”, Mr. Daniel Kostzer, ITUC expert from Brussels – Economic Affairs Department, made the experts to discuss actively and pose relevant questions. Very pronounced inflation is present in all countries, prices of all goods have been increased, in particular the prices of food, fuel and energy while, at the same time, wages do not follow the inflation rates. Population can barely meet basic needs and the inflation is going on with no indication as to when and how it might be halted. Fears are also related to future, food in particular, but energy as well. Therefore, Trade Unions should exert pressure on their respective Governments and employers and, through permanent social dialogue, try to achieve an increase in minimum but also other wages accordingly. The main goal is to achieve any realistic ratio between workers’ needs and incomes. However, although some countries have seen nominal increases of wages, further inflation rate shows that the situation is difficult and will get worse before it gets better. Bargaining and social dialogue are now a very important task of all social partners.
The topic that Prof. dr. Bruno Sergi presented “Energy crisis, energy growth and green economy” justified the importance of serious discussions about the issues because, across the Western Balkans countries, the topic of energy is becoming a pressing subject and the states are trying to initiate green transition projects for new ways of producing energy independently in order that they could cope with the situation of dependence on foreign energy sources.

Attached are presentations in English and BSCM.

ITUC-PERC SEE Office

Prof Bruno Sergi The long-term impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and conflict in Ukraine on employment and economies
Prof Bruno Sergi Energy crisis, energy growth and green economy
Daniel Kostzer, Minimum wages, inflation and collective bargaining