Promoting prosperity and stability: the EMU anchor in candidate and potential candidate countries

This paper analyses the euro as external anchor in the Western Balkans and their process of fiscal consolidation in the context of future EU accession.Promoting wealth and stability: the EMU anchor in candidate and potential candidate countries, Euro as external anchor in the Western Balkans, use of the euro in the Western Balkans, fiscal consolidation in candidate countries, use of the DM and later the euro, use of external anchors and parallel currencies, candidate countries fiscal surveillance procedures, candidate countries fiscal policies, economic affairs of candidate countries and Western Balkans, economic policy related to enlargement

Western Balkans Integration into European Union: Challenges and Consequences

This paper is intended to analyze the challenges and consequences of the integration of Western Balkans to the European Union. Specifically, in the first case, challenges of this integration path and in the second case the consequences as a result of eventual stagnation in this path. For more than a century, the Western Balkans region has been seeking its way of European transformation. The region remains in the agenda of European Union expansion, but even after two decades of promises, the integration of Western Balkan countries to EU is not certain. The integration journey is first of all closely connected to building the institutional capacities, adoption of laws, rules, norms and European behavior in the domestic policymaking. Therefore, the challenges are converted into obstacle or inability to the establishment of values, identity, institutional and social aspects in the Western Balkan countries, whereas the consequences are reflected as derivatives of failure to accomplishing the membership of the region to EU. Based on the research conducted on this issue, this study argues that such challenges as lack of rule of law, high levels of corruption and organized crime are derivatives of historical legacy and political elite efforts to capture the state or dominate certain state resources, as well as of the EU approach towards this region. This study is important particularly in this aspect and unequivocally presents the common and separate challenges of the Western Balkans towards integration into the European Union. Along with this realistic presentation, the consequences themselves appear which first of all are not only to the detriment of the Western Balkans

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund's Western Balkans Program: Midterm Impact Assessment

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) commissioned an impact assessment of its Western Balkans program from 2010 to 2015. As the team who carried out this assessment, our overall conclusion from the assessment is that the RBF program in the Western Balkans is having meaningful positive impact, and it is relevant to the developments in Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, and the rest of the region. We believe the program is well designed and is achieving a lot with a relatively small amount of money

Who’s walking on the Silk Road? EU’s Policy at the Black Sea Region: from Bilateral to Regional Approach

Black Sea region is today the geopolitical attraction for both the United States and the European Union after being under the Soviet Union for more than 4 decades. The countries in the region have started to become pro-European but the Union seems to change its bilateral policy approach with a more regional approach. The political swift has done some history in the case of the Western Balkans, where the EU has first tried its regional approach with a bilateral flavor. The conditionality sets and rules applied in the case of the Western Balkans states could be also used in the case of the Black Sea bordering countries. However, both the European Union and the countries here must first find the incentives and the strenght to get involved into a long term relationship, as it is the relationship between Brussels and the Balkans. In the same time, the events in the Balkans set trends within the Black Sea region. European geopolitical, economic and security interests demand clear answers to questions like: “how will the dual EU’s approach differ from the approach used in the case of the Western Balkans?”, “What are the special features of the region that the Union should take into account?”. In order to properly answer all these, the EU has first to answer the question "Why the Black Sea region?".

When Europeanization Hits Limited Statehood. The Western Balkans as a Test Case for the Transformative Power of Europe

The EU seeks to transform the domestic structures of the Western Balkan countries in order to foster peace, stability and prosperity in the region ridden by war and ethnic conflict. Unlike in case of the Mediterranean and Newly Independent States, the EU has even offered its South Eastern European neighbors a membership perspective. Whether the golden carrot is big enough, however, to draw the Western Balkans closer to Europe, is still an open question. Croatia has made sufficient progress to successfully conclude accession negotiations in the years to come. The EU rewarded domestic reforms in Macedonia and Montenegro with granting them candidate status, which Serbia is likely to receive in the near future. Albania, by contrast, appears to be more reluctant to engage in the changes necessary to get even with Macedonia and Montenegro. Bosnia Herzegovina and Kosovo, finally, are seriously lagging behind and have not even applied for membership. Can Europeanization approaches account for the differential impact of the EU in the Western Balkans? The paper argues that problems of limited statehood have seriously curbed the transformative power of the EU in the Western Balkans - despite their membership perspective. Not only has the EU exerted less pressure for adaptation on Western Balkan governments. Weak state capacities and ethnic conflicts have reduced both their willingness and capacity to implement the acquis communautaire. Given its lack of experience in state building, the EU is ill-equipped to address these problems. This results in a serious dilemma. On the one hand, the EU has offered the Western Balkans a membership perspective to stabilize the region and overcome problems caused by weak and contested statehood. On the other hand, it is the limited statehood of Western Balkan countries, which undermines their compliance with EU norms and rules.EU-South-Eastern Europe; EU-South-Eastern Europe; Europeanization; Europeanization

Europeanization of the Balkans vs. Balkanization of Europe: A Vision Limited by Realities

By the time of the simultaneous collapses of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the European Union (EU) commenced an acute relationship with the post-communist Central and Eastern European Countries. The EU had fully supported transition to more democratic regimes and into capital market of these countries. Finally, 13 Central and Eastern European Countries became members of the EU in last two decades. The most-awaited new Enlargement Strategy for the remaining potential candidate and candidate countries in the Western Balkans, entitled “The Credible Enlargement Perspective for the Western Balkans” was presented earlier this year. The strategy that was presented eighteen years after the launch of the Stabilisation and Association Process (SAP), indicates a clear prospect of accession of Western Balkans countries to the EU by the end of 2025. It’s clear that Western Balkans needs the EU for more stability and less corruption, but according to us, social acceptability of nationalism and far-right in the Western Europe is a danger for Western Balkans countries that were torn by sharp ethnic conflicts until recently. On the other hand, some Central European countries’ descent into authoritarianism is another problem for sensitive stability of Western Balkans countries on the door of the EU. This study aims to take a comprehensive look at how Europe is Balkanizing while Western Balkans countries are Europeanizing. Strategy reports and case studies will be analyzed dealing with the rise of Nationalism in Europe and European Integration of Western Balkans countries

Cross Country Comparison and Concluding Remarks

Political, economic and cultural elites in the Western Balkans share common views on the role of religion in society, but different perspectives on the challenges and concerns related to interreligious relations

Asymmetrical economic and institutional changes in the Western Balkans : cooperation with the European Union

The Western Balkans have historically been a poor area of Europe. The total population of the Western Balkans is 24.7 million. Ethnic differences of long standing have led to conflicts and to political and economic instability. Poverty and instability have combined to produce a vicious circle of institutional backwardness. Recent conflicts in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo have aggravated an already adverse economic situation. GDP in 1999 was substantially lower than that in 1989. The EU plans to enter into contractual relationships with all the Western Balkans in the form of Stabilization and Association Agreements (SAAs). The pacts are aimed at helping to establish economic and political stability, to implement institutional reforms, to practice regional free trade and cooperation and to privatize the economies of Western Balkans. These are also the presumed goals of the Western Balkans. This study focuses on a review of the progress made by the Western Balkans toward meeting the above stated challenges. A main conclusion is that the attainment of these goals has been asymmetrical for economic, political and institutional reasons.peer-reviewe