Civil Society In The Eu Integration Of The Western Balkans

PDF available for free on http://martenscentre.eu/publications/european-integration-western-balkans-reconciliation-european-future While most of Europe decided to unite in the 20th and 21st century, a country in the Balkans split into seven independent states. The efforts of these states to join the European Union and the reconciliation initiatives between the countries are detailed in this research paper. Despite the efforts of the countries of the region and of the EU, a lot of work is needed before these countries will become sufficiently mature in political, economic and societal sense to become members of the European Union. The promotion of dialogue, grassroots movements, civil society and cross-border projects is needed in order to tackle unresolved problems in the region.

This book examines civil society empowerment during the EU enlargement process. Building on extensive fieldwork, it compares mobilisation around rule of law issues in Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia. Moving beyond the traditional focus on the top-down impact of EU support, it demonstrates NGOs’ agency and analyses their shifting strategies throughout the membership negotiations. Its approach and findings will appeal to scholars and advanced students of EU integration, social movements, and the politics of South East Europe.

This book explores the ambiguous role played by civil society in the processes of state-building, democratization and post-conflict reconstruction in the Western Balkans challenging the assumption that civil society is always a force for good by analysing civil society actors and their effects in post-communist and post-conflict transition.

Through the intervention of the European Union, the lives of people living in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Kosovo have been transformed beyond recognition. From the perspective of the Western Balkans today, the EU looks and acts like a development agency with a broad brief and deep pockets. Yet until the end of the twentieth century, external relations and foreign policy were minor aspects of EU activity. How and why has the role of the EU changed so dramatically and what does this reveal about the future development of the Balkan states? Europe's Balkan Dilemma offers the first comprehensive analysis of the impact of EU assistance and intervention in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Kosovo. Adam Fagan places the fundamental question of what has been achieved through the EU's increased involvement in the region in the context of the EU's ambitions in global security and conflict management beyond the Balkan states. Europe's Balkan Dilemma will be a vital resource not only for students of International Relations and European Studies but also for anyone involved in helping to equip this tumultuous region for the next phase in its eventful history.

This book critically examines the process of statebuilding by the EU, focusing on its attempts to build Member States in the Western Balkan region. This book analyses the European Union's policies towards, and the impact they have, upon the states of the Western Balkans, and assesses how these affect the nature of EU foreign policy. To this end, it focuses on the tools and mechanisms that the EU employs in its enlargement policy and examines the new instruments of direct intervention (in Bosnia and Kosovo), political coercion (in the case of Croatia and Serbia in relation to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia), and stricter conditionality in the Western Balkan countries. The book discusses the key aim of this special form of statebuilding, which is to establish functional liberal-democratic states in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia in order for them to join the EU and to cope with the responsibilities and pressures of membership in the future. However, the authors argue that while the EU sees itself as an international actor that promotes and protects liberal-democratic values, norms and principles, its experiences in the Western Balkans demonstrate how the EU ́s actions in the region have undermined the basic principles of democratic decision-making (such as the European support for impositions in Bosnia) and international law (Kosovo), and have consequently contributed to new tensions (see police reform in Bosnia, and the tensions between Kosovo and Serbia) and dependencies. This book will be of much interest to students of statebuilding, EU politics, global governance and IR/Security Studies in general.

Today, more than fifteen years after the end of the wars that accompanied Yugoslavia's dissolution, the "Balkan question" remains more than ever a "European question". In the eyes of many Europeans in the 1990s, Bosnia was the symbol of a collective failure, while Kosovo later became a catalyst for an emerging Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). In the last decade, however, the overall thrust of the EU's Balkans policy has moved from an agenda dominated by security issues related to the war and its legacies to one focused on the perspective of the Western Balkan states' accession to the European Union. This Chaillot Paper, which features contributions from authors from various parts of the region, examines the current state of play in the countries of the Western Balkans with regard to EU accession. It brings together both views from the Balkans states themselves and overarching thematic perspectives. For the first time the European Union has become involved in the formation of new nation-states that also aspire to become members of the Union. The EU's transformative power has proved effective in integrating established states; now it is confronted with the challenge of integrating new and sometimes contested states. Against this background, this paper makes the case for a concerted regional approach to EU enlargement, and a renewed and sustained commitment to the European integration of the Western Balkans.