Volume 67, Issue 3

Detention, expulsion and deterrence have become the predominant policy response to migration. It is reported that it is becoming increasingly difficult even to claim asylum in the EU. All states restrict border access, but immigration is criminalized most stringently in cases of asylum. Noting how many national jurisdictions are adopting ever more restrictive immigration control systems, the author discusses the recent criminalization of migration in Slovenia. The country’s former internal Yugoslav boundary became the European Union’s Schengen border in 2007, and what was a permeable demarcation between Slovenia and Croatia up to 1991 has now become a hard border, subject to securitization and surveillance. The author explores the policy-making surrounding the symbolic construction of Slovenia as an EU member state which has been charged with the role of Schengen border defender. She shows how this shift has become apparent in Slovenia’s immigration management policies, administrative practices, and political discourse.

With the Soviet dissolution, the eastern districts of the newly established Republic of Moldova refused to recognize the Moldovan authorities and proclaimed the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR). In the post-Soviet context, the PMR, or Transnistria as the international public know it, emerged as a de facto state without international recognition. This ‘phantom’ status in international relations entailed the reputation of being ‘a black hole’ in international trade. However, the de facto state managed to develop its own customs authorities, which created an extensive administrative legacy of what was a merely de facto border. The author uses the concept of ‘phantom border’ to contextualize this administrative legacy of the Transnistrian borders. He traces these legacies through the correspondence between the Transnistrian customs authorities and the administration of the Rybnitsa Sugar and Alcohol Factory—a major local enterprise with a long history as an actor in the regional border infrastructure.

The Oder-Neisse line, Poland’s western border since 1945, has played a prominent role in nation-building attempts since the fall of the communist regime. National-conservative politicians and likeminded actors have presented it as a frontier to protect the Polish nation against unwanted influences. The framing, in public and political discourses, of this Polish-German border as a frontier has waxed and waned. It seemed to have disappeared, only to retake centre stage in recent national-conservative rhetoric. A wide variety of Polish and international actors and institutions have been confronted with this ‘haunting’ effect of the Oder-Neisse line. In this case study, the author shows how it is not only former borders that can have phantom-like characteristics in the present, but current borders can be equally burdened with their own past.

Set at the intersection between political history and environmental history, this article shows the significance of administrative legacy and natural dynamics of rivers in the landscape for creating (and solving) border disputes. In 2006, Slovenia and Croatia engaged in such a dispute regarding the exact course of the border near the River Mura in the vicinity of the villages of Hotiza (Slovenia) and Sv. Martin na Muri (Croatia). After giving an overview of the Slovenian-Croatian border disputes between 1992 and 2019, the author analyses the border dispute around the River Mura. He then shows how the history of the river’s regulations, of the Habsburg and Yugoslav land survey activities, as well as of the previous border disputes on the river are entangled in the current dispute.

Taking Croatia as a case in point, the authors compare the influence of spatial planning on tourism urbanization. To understand how tourism and spatial planning have interacted on a subnational level, two tourism centres on the Adriatic coast, Poreč in Istria and Makarska in Dalmatia, were chosen as case studies. The authors argue that while tourism-driven urbanization during the socialist era favoured the development of hotels paired with quality communal infrastructure and public facilities, the subsequent socio-economic transformation has oriented tourism investments towards private profit in ways that have often led to the neglect of public interest and facilities. The two chosen cases represent different paths, however. In the last thirty years, Makarska has fallen prey to what has come to be called apartmanizacija (apartmentization)—an usurpation of valuable coastal space through the uncontrolled construction of private apartments. Poreč, on the other hand, has maintained its well-planned space by carefully rebuilding and upgrading its hotel capacities.

Between January and June 2019 Romania managed the rotating presidency of the European Union, the first of a trio to be followed by Finland and Croatia. This commentary takes stock of Romania’s trajectory over the last few years and offers a broad overview of the country’s economy and politics. Where does Romania stand today, more than a decade since it joined the European Union? In the first part, the authors sketch the recent evolution of Romania’s economy which has been marked by high growth but overall modest increases in wages, and tight labour markets. In the second part they turn to politics, in particular to the realignment of the political spectrum following the European elections of May 2019. They conclude by pointing out some of the problems that are likely to confront both Bucharest and Brussels in the near future.