Balkan roadshow - Serbia (1/6)

As our creaking overnight train to Podgorica pulled out of the station, I was relieved that our six-country Balkan roadshow has got off to a promising start. We were in Belgrade to get the low down on Serbian civil society.

It was my first time in the city that just 10 years ago was bombed by NATO. It is a fascinating place. Widely seen as the capital of the Balkans, it's a sprawling mix of grey concrete and shining towers, and boasts one of the largest Orthodox churches in the world. It still prominently displays the huge government buildings, destroyed by NATO air strikes, standing as a disfigured testament to the callous West. They are just yards from the sprawling US Embassy complex, where one can find all-American GIs running around in full gear.

As well as visiting the US Embassy, we met people at the British, Canadian, and Italian embassies, international NGOs, and Serbian organisations big and small. We were even granted an audience with the 'father of Serbian civil society' (who modestly states that he prefers to be called its 'voice').

The aim of out visit was to learn more about the exact context for Serbian civil society (which turns out to be extremely complex), raise our profile in Belgrade, and make a definite plan for our takeover of the country.

It quickly became clear that this will be a very difficult market to crack. There is a simmering resentment towards the West, and especially the US and UK, over their scapegoating of the Serbs over the wars of the mid-90s, and the recent shotgun independence of Kosovo. They have a point: the Croatians and Bosnians 'got away' with their war crimes, and Kosovo's independence marks a dramatic and dangerous precedent for international diplomacy, being the first time the international community acknowledged a unilateral succession. Many countries are deeply concerned by this, including Spain, whose Basque and Catalan regions are clamouring for independence.

Kosovo has given Serbia an unenviable choice: between its identity and its future. Milosevic built a fervent Serb nationalism with Kosovo at it's heart, and many Serbs now see it as integral to their sense of nation. However the only viable future for Serbia is in the EU, and that will not be possible without giving up its claim to Kosovo, something most Serbs see as inconceivable.

But despite the broader political grievances, our proposals to connect civil society leaders to their peers across Europe went down extremely well. We were given some very good ideas and are certain that once the dust from our whirlwind trip has settled we will write a masterplan, likely to revolve around addressing the major challenges for the sector here: sustainable funding, and improved governance.

The great and the good of Serbian civil society are eagerly awaiting our proposals, so I think we've done a good job so far. Next up, following a 3am passport check at the railway border post, will be Montenegro. One down, five to go.