The third day of the Belgrade Security Conference continues with the public presentation of the “SecuriMeter 2025 Report: Western Balkans Regional Security Perceptions”.

The Regional Cooperation Council’s SecuriMeter 2025 survey offers a detailed insight into how citizens across the Western Balkan Six perceive security, governance, and everyday risks ranging from corruption and migration to cyber threats and economic uncertainty. As the fifth annual edition, the report aims to inform the public with factual, data-driven findings so that key decisions affecting the region are based on evidence rather than prejudice. With responses from more than 6,000 citizens, the report shows increasing trust in regional and European cooperation, while still highlighting persistent concerns about general security, personal safety, corruption, economic pressures, and depopulation.

Mr Amer Kapetanović, Secretary General of the Regional Cooperation Council, opened the session with welcoming remarks and highlighting three main messages drawn from citizens across the region. First, people are increasingly afraid of institutions that they feel are not performing as they should. Second, trust is shaped by delivery, not declarations. Mr Kapetanović presented a developed statistical model showing clear trends. Third, youth and the EU remain the strongest anchors in the Western Balkans. The model shows that citizens who trust local institutions are more likely to trust EU institutions as well. When the EU perspective feels tangible, trust increases. Security, he concluded, is not only about threats but also about trust.

Mr Aner Zuković, Senior Security Advisor at the Regional Cooperation Council, continued by presenting some of the most interesting results from SecuriMeter 2025. Only 25% of WB citizens are satisfied with the way things are going in their economy. 38% believe the Western Balkans is a secure region, while 49% consider their own economy safe. Just 31% are optimistic about regional security over the next 12 months. 46% of WB citizens think the continuation of the war in Ukraine negatively impacts security in the region. About 53% of WB citizens feel personally secure, yet everyday fears remain common. One-third believe domestic violence is widespread. Half of WB citizens carry less cash to avoid being robbed. 21% have installed security cameras, while 2% own a gun, and around 10% are considering getting one. The whole report is available here.

Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade, Dr Tijana Rečević talked about the importance of distinguishing security from safety as both analytical and theoretical concepts, with the main difference between the two being the intention behind the harm. She then mentioned how, unfortunately, we live in a society where slogans such as “corruption kills” are becoming less metaphorical, with issues such as unsafe roads, weakened standards, weak law enforcement, etc., becoming everyday life. She also linked this to growing issues of immigration, low trust in the media and police, and other related concerns. Later on, she emphasised the role of education in making long-term, lasting changes to society. As an education worker herself, she provided useful insight into how the student movement inspired changes in the way critical thinking is perceived in our societies.

Dr Sonja Stojanović Gajić, Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies South East Europe, University of Rijeka, talked about the role of wars, or rather narratives of war, as a security issue. She feels it boils down to two main issues. The first is a deep-rooted fear of war in our society, while the second is the shared trauma of war that characterises this region. However, she stayed on a positive note by giving the example of the student protests in Serbia, especially the movement from Novi Pazar, and how this generation normalised a relationship that previously was not very good. An important topic she mentioned was the fact that two-thirds of people in Serbia would not trade their freedom for security, which she points out as a significant improvement and a source of optimism.

Research Analyst at Carnegie Europe, Ms Iliriana Gjoni, pointed out the deeply rooted clientelism in societies throughout the Western Balkans. She later touched upon EU accession and the importance of the Serbian market, which undermines the process by giving Serbia a kind of privileged treatment. She was critical of the EU’s justification for this and said that the time of stabilitocracy has run out. Later on, she pointed out the importance of reconciliation in the region in order to move forward, which we as a region still have not achieved. To that end, she stressed the importance of ending nationalistic slurs while protesting against governments in the region.

Ms Nikolina Stojanovska, Managing Director and Project Manager at Market Vision, talked about the irony of corruption being normalised as a part of our daily lives. She emphasised that the latest tragedy in North Macedonia happened exclusively because of corruption. She pointed out a positive aspect in the SecurityMeter 2025 results: contrary to popular narratives, 68% of citizens wish to stay in their economy.

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The third panel of the second BSC day, moderated by Goran Buldioski, Senior Fellow, Hertie School, University of Governance in Berlin addressed key questions shaping the future of democratic governance amid steadily intensifying global authoritarian pressure and the erosion of institutional resilience caused by internal liberal trends.

With democracies facing simultaneous external coercion and internal decay – from judicial erosion and media capture to disinformation and declining public trust – the panel examined whether the democratic model requires restoration, reinvention, or both.

Stephen B. Heintz, President and CEO of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, argued that American democracy is undeniably in crisis, but the root causes predate the 2016 and 2024 elections. He noted that the U.S. has been experiencing democratic backsliding for roughly 40 years, driven by reinforcing trends such as the growing influence of money in politics, the rise of social media, increasing inequality, and a general decline in public trust in democratic institutions and processes. Heintz emphasized that reversing this trajectory will not happen within a single election cycle; rather, it requires long-term institutional reforms and cultural shifts – without which democratic renewal remains impossible. He concluded by stating that democracies must rethink the relationship between capitalism and governance. In his words, capitalism must serve democracy, not the other way around.

Adriana Zaharijević, Principal Fellow at the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory (University of Belgrade), focused on Serbia’s current situation, describing the country’s system as “transactional authoritarianism.” She defined this model as one where everything is negotiable, everything is for sale, and everything is up for grabs – a political environment where rules are fluid, institutions are hollowed out, and power operates through constant exchange rather than formal democratic procedures. On a more optimistic note, she highlighted the importance of the student movement, agreeing that Serbian students are reshaping civic culture by practicing democracy directly through plenums and collective decision-making. For her, this represents a rare emerging counter-narrative to the dominant political logic. Responding to a question from the audience, Zaharijević warned that the role of the European Union must also be approached critically. She argued that the EU cannot simply be viewed as a “democracy shield” or an inherently democratizing force, noting that the accession process itself often contains contradictions and limitations that should not be overlooked.

Soli Özel, Non-Resident Senior Fellow at Institut Montaigne, reflected on the democratization paradigm of the 1990s – a supposedly universal model that countries were expected to adopt or at least emulate, given that the post–World War II political economy left little ideological space outside liberal democracy. He criticized the EU’s approach to supporting democracy globally, suggesting that its efforts have often been inconsistent or insufficient. Despite his largely pessimistic diagnosis, Özel ended on a cautiously hopeful note, arguing that public mobilization is emerging across the region – in Serbia, Georgia, and Turkey.

Marika Mikiashvili, Foreign Secretary of the Georgian party Droa, focused on Georgia’s democratic crisis. She described the ruling party, Georgian Dream, as a pro-Russian regime that functions effectively as an extension of Moscow, despite the fact that pro-EU and anti-Russian sentiment are deeply embedded in Georgian national identity. Mikiashvili explained that the government is stuck in a stalemate: it has not fully consolidated authoritarian control, yet, similar to Serbia, the opposition lacks the material and organizational resources to generate a sufficiently powerful push to oust the ruling party. She criticized the limited international support for Georgian citizens, who have been protesting continuously for over a year in defense of democratic norms.

In conclusion, all speakers agreed that democratic decline is not a sudden event but a long-term process—one that requires sustained civic resilience, institutional reform, and international support.

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