“EU Western Balkan strategy: enlargement perspective or unrealistic expectations”
Date Issued
2018
Author(s)
Runcheva Tasev, Hristina
Abstract
The much-awaited Western Balkans Strategy entitled “A credible enlargement
perspective for and enhanced EU engagement with the Western Balkans” comes
eighteen years after the introduction of the Stabilisation and Association Process
for this region. The Strategy aims to provide a credible enlargement perspective
for the Western Balkans besides the fact that still the candidate countries are far
from membership.
The paper gives critical explication of what “credibility of enlargement”
actually means in practice and if there is a realistic perspective for membership of
the candidate countries of the Western Balkans by the projected year 2025. There is a
disagreement among the EU foreign ministers over the projected year of integration,
but the front-runners according to the Commission's assessment are Serbia and
Montenegro, while Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia could join later.
The Strategy does not leave a lot of space for optimism because it detects the
key issues that have to be targeted, such as poor rule of law performance, organized
crime and corruption at all levels of government and administration, etc. Besides
that, it emphasizes on the non-functioning market economy among “Western Balkan
Six”. And last but not least is the key issue of adopting binding solutions for bilateral
disputes prior to their accession, which means that the Greek-Macedonian name
dispute should be solved before the accession, without offering involvement of any
EU Member States. The Strategy fails to address the idea of grouping countries
of the Western Balkans as a whole and offering a package for membership, but
instead, it favors individual accession of countries. Besides the good opportunity
for the Balkans, the Strategy does not spread much optimism for the region.
perspective for and enhanced EU engagement with the Western Balkans” comes
eighteen years after the introduction of the Stabilisation and Association Process
for this region. The Strategy aims to provide a credible enlargement perspective
for the Western Balkans besides the fact that still the candidate countries are far
from membership.
The paper gives critical explication of what “credibility of enlargement”
actually means in practice and if there is a realistic perspective for membership of
the candidate countries of the Western Balkans by the projected year 2025. There is a
disagreement among the EU foreign ministers over the projected year of integration,
but the front-runners according to the Commission's assessment are Serbia and
Montenegro, while Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia could join later.
The Strategy does not leave a lot of space for optimism because it detects the
key issues that have to be targeted, such as poor rule of law performance, organized
crime and corruption at all levels of government and administration, etc. Besides
that, it emphasizes on the non-functioning market economy among “Western Balkan
Six”. And last but not least is the key issue of adopting binding solutions for bilateral
disputes prior to their accession, which means that the Greek-Macedonian name
dispute should be solved before the accession, without offering involvement of any
EU Member States. The Strategy fails to address the idea of grouping countries
of the Western Balkans as a whole and offering a package for membership, but
instead, it favors individual accession of countries. Besides the good opportunity
for the Balkans, the Strategy does not spread much optimism for the region.
Subjects
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