scholarly journals Europeanisation through Conditionality and Deliberation

Author(s):  
Jehona Lushaku Sadriu

This paper analyses the Europeanisation of Kosovo by focusing on conditionality and deliberation as EU enlargement tools. Despite the high presence of EU institutions in Kosovo, the EU does not recognize Kosovo as a country, but offers the possibility of integration as it currently does for all other Western Balkan countries. This paper analyses the way in which the EU applies conditionality towards Kosovo in the pre-accession period and the extent to which this is combined with deliberation. In order to measure conditionality and deliberation, I take as a case study the Stabilization Association Process Dialogue Meeting between EU and Kosovo. For conditionality I present my own methodology, whereas for deliberation I apply Discourse Quality Index (DQI). I conclude, that EU uses deliberationin the process of conditionality, whereas Kosovo representatives use conditionality very rarely.

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-68
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Čavoški

Although the implementation of the acquis is a crucial element of the EU integration process, it is recognised as its ‘weakest link’. The implementation deficit is especially apparent with the EU environmental acquis, both in the existing member states and the accession countries. Most recently, following the accession of Croatia, the EU faces prospective enlargement to other Western Balkans countries. The author argues that there are specific problems in implementing the environmental acquis in accession countries and that the case of Serbia, or other countries of the Western Balkans, is not particularly unique. The case study used to support this argument is the implementation of the waste acquis in Serbia as it represents a highly demanding and costly policy area for national authorities and the country faces extensive legal, institutional, economic and financial challenges in implementing the environmental acquis.


Author(s):  
Ulrich Sedelmeier ◽  
Graham Avery

The EU has expanded many times and many countries still aspire to join. It has extended the prospect of membership to countries in the Balkans and Turkey and has developed a ‘neighbourhood’ policy towards other countries, some of which may want to join in the future. Enlargement illustrates the success of the European model of integration. It has also provided the EU with a powerful tool to influence domestic politics in would-be members. But enlargement also poses fundamental challenges. It has implications both for how the EU works (its structure and institutions) and for what it does (its policies). The chapter first compares ‘widening’ and ‘deepening’ before discussing enlargement as soft power. It then explains how the EU has expanded and why countries want to join. It also looks at prospective member states: the Balkan countries, Turkey, Norway, Switzerland, and Iceland. Finally, it examines the European Neighbourhood Policy.


2015 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Radmila Dragutinović-Mitrović ◽  
Predrag Bjelić

This paper aims at investigating the role of different trade regimes in determining the bilateral trade of Western Balkan countries and the enlarged European Union between 2001—2010. Special focus is laid on the intra-regional trade of Western Balkan countries and complementarities of this sub-regional trade integration and the EU accession process. Using panel data, we estimated the gravity model of bilateral exports from Western Balkan and Central Eastern European countries to the core EU members in the 2001–2010 period. The results confirm the importance of EU membership for the development of acceding countries’ trade and shed light on asymmetrical trade regimes as important factors of boosting the bilateral trade flows. Additionally, CEFTA 2006 has a significant contribution to intra-regional Western Balkans trade.


Author(s):  
Anne McNaughton

As economic integration continues to deepen across developed economies the barriers to further integration are revealed as those located behind rather than at the borders of integrating states. A concept that has, correspondingly, acquired increasing popularity in recent years is that of ‘mutual recognition.’ This concept is regarded by many as a way of furthering economic integration in sectors in which identified obstacles to integration are regarded as limiting productivity and economic development. Using the European Services Directive1 as a case study, this article examines the concept of mutual recognition in order to better understand its limitations as well as its potential. It is suggested that the more significant innovation in the Directive is the process of ‘mutual evaluation’ introduced by the Directive in Article 39. Once again, the EU may be leading the way in dealing with barriers to trade.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-70

This article analyses effects of Brexit on relations between the United Kingdom and the Western Balkan countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia). First, the symbolism of the UK departure from the EU for the Western Balkans is explained. In the following step, multiple types of relations (in trade, security, culture) between the post-Brexit UK and this region are analysed using the theoretical concepts of linkage, leverage and soft power. Finally, the consequences of Brexit on further EU enlargement are presented. The research has confirmed the initial hypotheses. First, as expected, the volume and density of UK-Western Balkan relations will be reduced after Brexit. Second, Western Balkans is of a very limited interest for the UK, primarily in security. Third, Brexit has not in a serious way changed the already existing low chances of EU accession for the Western Balkan countries. The reason for this has little to do with the UK’s presence in or absence from the EU and is rather a consequence of the majority view within the Union (that Britain had already shared before Brexit) concerning further enlargement and low level of preparation of Western Balkan countries for EU membership.


The article is dedicated to the study of integration strategies of the institutions of cross-border cooperation, with the case study of Euregio Meuse-Rhine coming under scrutiny. The main questions addressed here are: what determines the perception by these institutions of the power structure of the regionalization process, in what way this perception manifests itself and how it shapes the power status of the Euregio with respect to the local, national and supranational authorities. To answer these questions, the author analyzes the regionalization process in its retrospective dimension and then conducts Foucauldian discourse analysis of the main policy document of the institution of the Euregio to find out how it perceives the power structure of regionalization as a form of cross-border integration and how it intends to shape the way other entities perceive it. The author explains that the regionalization process is so complex and multifaceted that it inevitably leads to coopetition between various actors that try at the same time to assert their power status, outline their rights and responsibilities and retain implicit control over general perception of them by the others. In the course of this analysis it is concluded that the institutions of the euroregions use many discursive tools to properly present themselves, and by doing so they attempt to assume a leading role in a process of further regionalization, while playing down the contribution of the supranational bodies to this process and attributing blame for its not sufficient realization to the national authorities. In fact, the euroregional institutions have appropriated the discourse of regionalization and established an infrastructure of control and regulation that determines the way they shape extra linguistic reality, particularly power relations in the region.


2005 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 529-549 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sofija Siriski

Following the largest enlargement of the EU from 15 to 25 Member States many people are asking the question: where does Europe end? The Union has already made political commitments to additional EU members: Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Croatia and the other Balkan countries and in spite of the European Neighbourhood Policy further thinking of the EU enlargement also includes Ukraine and Moldova. But the French and Dutch rejection of the constitutional treaty has made the future EU enlargement uncertain and the EU adopted a new comprehensive enlargement strategy based on consolidation of the EU.


2021 ◽  
pp. 176-193
Author(s):  
Svetlana Knyazeva

The article examines a wide range of the problems associated with the boundless enlargement of the European Union which makes it possible to place the Balkans in the context of general European development. To become a member of the EU is the important goal of the post-socialist countries of the Balkans/South-Eastern Europe. Bulgaria, Romania, and the post-Yugoslavian states of Slovenia and Croatia became full members of the EU. Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Albania are still at different stages of integration into the European community. This accession is the logical completion of the processes of social, political, economic and legal transformation of the Balkan countries, in which they themselves and the European Union as a whole and its individual member states are interested for reasons of geopolitics and geoeconomics. However, the accession to Europe (or the return to Europe) of the Balkan states with their authoritarian and socialist past includes not only the reform of the economic, political and legal systems, but also a change in value orientations. While in the states of the so-called «founding fathers» of the EU a Western European corporate civic identity is being formed, in the countries of the former Eastern Europe and the Balkan region, ethnic identity remains remains largely in the mainstream of public consciousness. The author examines axiological, ideological and psychological aspects of the accession of post-socialist countries to the EU, and also analyzes specific foreign policy problems associated with this process and the role of regional international organizations in the «europeanization» of the Balkans and in the settlement of ethnic and interstate conflicts in the region that still remain acute. Negative tendencies, first of all - the strengthening of populist sentiments and the coming to power of politicians reflecting these sentiments, pose challenges and threats not only to the European Union, but also to Russia.


2004 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugène Loos

The language choice at institutions of the European Union has been investigated in numerous studies examining such aspects as the European language constellation, institutional multilingualism and its possible reforms, linguistic capital and symbolic domination, and European identity related to the EU enlargement. In addition to these, studies researching the (language) practices at a specific EU institution, like the European Parliament, or analyzing EU organizational discursive practices have also been carried out. These studies, however, offer no insight into the way actors in EU institutions deal with multilingualism in their work place while producing texts for these institutions. It is for this reason that I decided to conduct a case study at the European Parliament to examine how advisers belonging to various political groups, despite their different national culture and distinct mother tongues, together succeed in producing what they call “panacea texts”. Finally, a possible new language constellation for the EU is discussed.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document