Predrag Matvejević
Yugoslav intellectual Predrag Matvejević was born in 1932 in Mostar (present-day Bosnia-Herzogovina). An essayist and professor of Slavic literature, he is the author of Mediterranean Breviary: A Cultural Landscape (1987) and Letters from the Other Europe (1992), among others, and won the European Essay Award in 1992. He currently serves as advisor on Mediterranean affairs to the European Commission.
Updated: 13 August 2010
Initially ignored by Europe, the Mediterranean region was subsequently the focus of several integration projects, all of which failed to produce results. The current crisis, now striking its southern shores, is a testament to the need for a new approach. 
The economic crisis has slowed, if not stopped, the rapprochement between Western and Eastern Europe. Now that the excesses of capitalism have put a damper on their liberal democratic élan, ex-Communist countries are seeing a subversion of the values they once fought for, writes Yugoslav intellectual Predrag Matvejević.