The Copenhagen Criteria and the Road to the Balkan Region

2022 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Bruno Ferreira Costa ◽  
Pedro Figueira

The affirmation and consolidation of the European project is based on a common effort to expand the domains and territorial dimension of the European Union. The different enlargement processes have been fulfilling political, economic, and geographical objectives and goals; however, the last few years have been marked by uncertainty regarding the calendar of accession processes for the Balkan States. If for some authors and political actors it is undeniable that the future will lead to an expansion of the European Union to this region, others warn of the ungovernability associated with moving forward without consolidating decision-making processes. This chapter aims to revisit the accession criteria (Copenhagen Criteria) and the current situation of candidate and potential candidate countries in the Balkan region in a critical dimension on the importance of these criteria for European democracy.

2010 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 595-616 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jelena Subotić

Why has Serbia’s path toward European integration been fraught with so much difficulty? This article explains Serbia’s reluctance to Europeanize by exploring why Serbian elites persistently refused to fulfill the European Union’s principal requirement—full cooperation with the Hague war crimes tribunal—even when it meant getting off the road to Brussels. The article offers a theoretical framework that incorporates domestic political identity, power of veto players, and competing elite strategies to explain how Serbian political actors used European Union norms and institutions to advance local political agendas. The article concludes that, instead of being a successful change agent that brought about policy shift in the areas of democratization and human rights, the European Union was used on many occasions by Serbian political elites to pursue strategies far removed from EU norms and standards.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-145
Author(s):  
Miranti Purnamasari

The problem of this research is how the European Union is a regional organization that is in the European region, has a policy of enlargement, which is a policy where the EU is trying to expand the area of cooperation to do so will be more extensive. Balkan region did not escape the attention of Europe. for this region, the European Union issued a Stabilisation and Association Process (SAP) which merupaka a policy that contains the promise of the EU to the Western Balkan countries for the opportunity to become a member. That's why Kosovo had finally become part of the SAP. After becoming a part of SAP, Kosovo received assistance from the EU as a potential candidate candidate. Program assistance provided by the EU is the IPA program which is a program set up to create a single framework to assist candidate countries and potential countries to join the EU premises. Through this IPA, the EU provides financial assistance to Kosovo to build its economy. This type of research is qualitative. The method used is descriptive analysis techniques. Most of the data collected through literature, as well as the search website. The results of this study indicate that the funds provided by the European Union through the IPA program provided through economy of Kosovo has been quite successful with demonstrated through improvements to the economy of Kosovo, the provision of this assistance has resulted in significant improvements in economic growth and development of Kosovo.


Author(s):  
Milenko Petrovic

Despite an initial delay in post-communist reforms and opening the EU accession process, Bulgaria and Romania have already succeeded in becoming EU members while Croatia is just a ‘step away’ from full membership status. Although considerably behind these three, the remaining (Western) Balkan states have been progressing fairly well in the association negotiations (i.e. Stabilisation and Association Process) with the European Union since the early 2000s and expect to officially open negotiations for accession (as is the case with FYR Macedonia) or get full candidate status by the end of 2009 or in 2010 at the latest. However, on their way to Europe, these countries have still to overcome some challenges which the previous EU membership candidates from post-communist Europe faced to a significantly lesser extent or not at all. Focusing on the problems of the increased toughness of EU accession criteria due to the declining public support in the ‘old’ EU member states for further EU enlargement and on the interior political instability in the countries of the Western Balkans, caused primarily by their still ‘undefined’ statehood status, this paper investigates the character and strength of the remaining obstacles for further enlargement of the European Union into the Balkan region.


Author(s):  
Oleksandra Cherednichenko ◽  

The results of the study of the main elements of unobstructed space are presented and the compliance of the actual state with the regulatory requirements of measures to ensure a safe, comfortable, accessible and informative pedestrian zone of the road network is analyzed. A comparative analysis of the main regulatory requirements for access ramps on the legislation of Ukraine and the European Union is carried out.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 235-240
Author(s):  
Iryna Solonenko

The development of road network infrastructure is an important component of the economic development of the European Union. Updating of the road network contributes to the integration of the economies of countries into a coherent whole. The road network provides the free movement of citizens, the movement of goods and the effective implementation of various services. The increase in the length of the road network leads to an increase in the financial and material costs necessary to ensure its maintenance and repair. One of the ways to reduce costs is by strengthening the physic-mechanical and operational characteristics of the pavement due to the widespread use of cement concrete. The quality of the pavement of cement concrete depends largely on the rational selection of its composition. This allows a significant increase in the durability of road pavement. The purpose of the research was: the development of recommendations for the rational selection of the composition of the road pavement material of cement concrete, aimed at upgrading longevity, and taking into account its frost resistance grade. According to the goal, the following tasks were developed: the analyses of the climatic zones in which the road network of the European Union is located; the development of a research plan, a selection of the response function and influence factors; the study of physico-mechanical and operational characteristics of the researched material of road pavement; on the basis of the obtained data, the calculation of the complex of experimental-statistical models, which describe the physico-mechanical and operational characteristics of the road pavement material; on the basis of experimental statistical models, a method was proposed for selecting the rational compositions of the cement concrete pavement road material depending on the conditions of its application. The results presented in the article can be used in engineering and scientific practice for the selection of road pavement from cement concrete for highways.


This encyclopedia offers the most comprehensive and up-to-date resource on the European integration process. Under the editorial directorship of Finn Laursen and associate editors Derek Beach, Roberto Domínguez, Sung-Hoon Park, Sophie Vanhoonacker, and Amy Verdun, the publication brings together peer-reviewed contributions by leading researchers on the European Union as a global actor. Topics include the basic treaties, institutions and policies of the European Union and the previous European Communities, the European Coal and Steel Community, the European Economic Community, and the European Atomic Energy Community. It also includes articles on the various conceptual frameworks and theories that have been developed by political scientists to guide research into the integration process and the policy- and decision-making processes with a focus on the roles of the different institutions, the European Council, the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the Court of Justice of the EU. Additionally, the publication includes articles on the member states as well as external relations and foreign policies of the EU. As a result, the Oxford Encyclopedia of European Union Politics is a vital resource for students, scholars, and policymakers.


2002 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Ring ◽  
Roddy McKinnon

Across the European Union, national governments are re-assessing the institutional mechanisms through which pension provision is delivered. This articles sets the debate within the wider context of the ‘pillared’ structural analysis often adopted by international institutions when discussing pensions reform. It then sets out a detailed discussion of developments in the UK, arguing that the UK is moving towards a model of reform akin to that promoted by the World Bank – referred to here as ‘pillared-privatisation’. The themes of this model indicate more means-testing, greater private provision, and a shift of the burden of risk from the government to individuals. An assessment is then made of the implications of UK developments for other EU countries. It is suggested that while there are strong reasons to think that other countries will not travel as far down the road of ‘pillared-privatisation’ as the UK, this should not be taken as a ‘given’.


Author(s):  
F. Basov

This article is dedicated to the German policy towards the EU enlargement. Its history as well as the current German policy towards prospective enlargements are analyzed in this paper. The article offers party-political and sociological analysis of Germany`s attitude towards the EU enlargement, also the reasons for it are determined. FRG supported all of the European Community and European Union enlargements. This line is being continued, but nowadays only step to step approach is being supported. Germany‘s motives to the EU enlargement are based on the liberal concept of the common security. The main goals of this policy are the including of European countries into the Western community of developed countries (the EU), the extension of the stability and security area. The economic integration is also very important for Germany. The key priority of the EU enlargement is the Western Balkan region (the so called “Europeanisation” of Western Balkans). This process is being supported by political elites of the region and by the European Union itself. It is recognized, that the Europeanisation of Western Balkans was used as a sample for the Eastern Partnership Program. Without consideration of the Russian factor, though, this strategy towards the post-Soviet countries has many weaknesses. But the EU-membership for the Eastern Partnership members is not excluded.


Author(s):  
Goran Ilik

This chapter explores the key features of the concept of postnationalism, its modes, and theoretical implications regarding the European Union. The main research intention is to explore the EU as a model and an agent for reconciliation of the Balkan region. For that purpose, the main operative elements of both the South East European Cooperation Process and “Yugosphere” are examined. At the end, it is concluded that the emulation of EU postnational model by the Balkan countries enables the process of reconciliation. Hence, the Balkan states seems to be “forced” to cooperate with each other, in order to achieve their common objective – their full integration into the EU, which strongly confirms the role of the EU as an agent for reconciliation of the Balkans.


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