Greek President Karolos Papoulias yesterday launched a stinging attack on the international community for the way it has treated the Balkans in recent years while also criticizing Greece’s neighbors for allowing themselves to be used by other states.

Speaking at the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki, Papoulias was particularly outspoken about developments in the UN-controlled Serbian province of Kosovo.

“The better life which the international community promised after the bombing in 1999 was lost in the bureaucratic labyrinth of economic and humanitarian aid and the big promises of world leaders who forgot their responsibilities,” Papoulias said. He added that the black economy and organized crime had been “the real winners” of the situation in Kosovo.

The president accepted that the economic situation in the Balkans had improved recently thanks to the incentive of European Union membership but he said that countries in the region were still selling themselves short.

“The core of the problem is that the Balkans are still treated as a sphere of influence,” Papoulias said. “Even the [Balkan] countries sometimes view themselves in this way.”

Papoulias warned that multiculturalism had not yet taken root in the Balkans and that the problem of nationalism would have to be overcome to ensure a brighter future for the region.