Session

Law

Description

The continuous EU commitment to the Western Balkans (WBs) has been a key issue and determinant for the European future of the WBs. In recent years, the EU ‘conditionality policy’ for enlargement has been widely criticized as being discouraging for the countries in the accession process, so enthusiasm and motivation for EU enlargement among WBs has been on decline. The regional initiatives established to keep the EU integration process alive, increase the regional cooperation through investments and remove barriers among the WBs such as the Berlin Process (2014) and Open Balkan (2019) although enjoyed the EU support, it was clear that they couldn’t replace EU membership nor bring more benefits to them. Consequently, different views were shared on possible ways how to speed up and energies the enlargement process and at the same time to keep alive the enthusiasm of EU integration among the WBs. The European Commission has responded to this situation with a new methodology for enlargement (2020), to revitalize the enlargement process. This paper will be focused on: at first, highlighting the new methodology for enlargement, principles, negotiating clusters and gradual participation of WBs in selected EU policies. In addition, as the accession process couldn’t be unlocked without a new mechanism of financial assistance called ‘new growth plan for the Western Balkans’ (2023) to further accelerate reforms and help the countries meet the requirement of EU membership. And third, properly addressing the security concerns emerged from the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine (started in February 2022) and alignment of the WBs with the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP).

Keywords:

Western Balkans, EU membership, accession process, methodology for enlargement, growth plan.

Proceedings Editor

Edmond Hajrizi

ISBN

978-9951-982-15-3

Location

UBT Lipjan, Kosovo

Start Date

25-10-2024 9:00 AM

End Date

27-10-2024 6:00 PM

DOI

10.33107/ubt-ic.2024.71

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Oct 25th, 9:00 AM Oct 27th, 6:00 PM

The Western Balkan countries’ respective pathways to EU membership: in view of the new methodology for enlargement and security concerns

UBT Lipjan, Kosovo

The continuous EU commitment to the Western Balkans (WBs) has been a key issue and determinant for the European future of the WBs. In recent years, the EU ‘conditionality policy’ for enlargement has been widely criticized as being discouraging for the countries in the accession process, so enthusiasm and motivation for EU enlargement among WBs has been on decline. The regional initiatives established to keep the EU integration process alive, increase the regional cooperation through investments and remove barriers among the WBs such as the Berlin Process (2014) and Open Balkan (2019) although enjoyed the EU support, it was clear that they couldn’t replace EU membership nor bring more benefits to them. Consequently, different views were shared on possible ways how to speed up and energies the enlargement process and at the same time to keep alive the enthusiasm of EU integration among the WBs. The European Commission has responded to this situation with a new methodology for enlargement (2020), to revitalize the enlargement process. This paper will be focused on: at first, highlighting the new methodology for enlargement, principles, negotiating clusters and gradual participation of WBs in selected EU policies. In addition, as the accession process couldn’t be unlocked without a new mechanism of financial assistance called ‘new growth plan for the Western Balkans’ (2023) to further accelerate reforms and help the countries meet the requirement of EU membership. And third, properly addressing the security concerns emerged from the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine (started in February 2022) and alignment of the WBs with the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP).