Freedom Barometer 2013 - Western Balkans

From the Freedom Barometer website: "Freedom Barometer (www.freedombarometer.org) compiles data that assess political freedom, prevalence of the rule of law and economic freedom into one single index. ... It is built on the most renowned indices in the field of economic freedom, political freedom and rule of law..."

Freedom Barometer 2013 findings for countries of Western Balkans:

All countries in the Western Balkans region (that is Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Albania), have already acceded the EU or are embarking on this path. We think that the annual progress reports of the European Commission do not offer enough solid facts to make a picture of the overall situation in an accession country. The data assembled in our first edition of Freedom Barometer offers a useful alternative for politicians, economists and human rights activists to make up their own opinions. Reliable data sometimes poses a challenge: the Freedom Barometer has excluded Kosovo for it seems obvious that the statistical data available was not cross checked.

The figures show at first glance minor differences but looking more closely similarities and differences become evident. Croatia for example, despite its EU accession, is still fighting rampant corruption but gets good scores when it comes to the field of Human Rights protections. Press freedom is in all countries considered a problem: political infringement and economic dependency on political advertisement poses a challenge for unbiased journalism. Economic freedoms in the fields of property rights, size of government, regulation of credit, labour and business and the freedom to trade internationally offer excellent parameters for comparison between all five countries.

To further explore Freedom Barometer data on countries of Western Balkans, please click here.