From a Star Pupil to a Troubling Role Model for the Western Balkans

2022 ◽  
pp. 171-190
Author(s):  
Jure Pozgan ◽  
Ana Bojinović Fenko
Keyword(s):  
Member State ◽  
Role Model ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
The Political ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Western Balkans ◽  
Domestic Environment ◽  
Accession Process ◽  
The Eu

This chapter examines the phenomenon of backsliding in the post-accession process of Europeanisation in Slovenia as one of the Central and Eastern European member states of the EU. It seeks to explain the rise of compliance problems with the EU's values (i.e., de-Europeanisation) in Slovenia, which turned a former EU star pupil into a troublesome member state. The chapter analyses sources of economic and democratic backsliding in times of polycrises in the EU that stem from the state's domestic environment and confirms the determining role of decision-makers over the political system. Given the importance and widely shared image of Slovenia as a role model for the candidate states in the Western Balkans, the chapter also addresses the potential impact of Slovenia's de-Europeanisation turn for its role as a bridge between the EU and the Western Balkans region.

scholarly journals The Role of Political Leadership in Macedonia in Function of EU Integration

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 98
Author(s):  
Mirvan Xhemaili
Keyword(s):  
Transition Period ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
The Political ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Western Balkans ◽  
The Road ◽  
Eu Integration ◽  
On The Road ◽  
The Eu

The dissolution of the former Yugoslavia was associated by destructive interethnic conflicts, by local and regional wars. Macedonia is also closely related to Europe politically and economically. The paper analyzes the role of political leadership on the road to EU integration. The research is one of many efforts that have been undertaken lately on the European Union development, its enlargement policy and the integration of Macedonia in EU. Specifically, this type of research is very important for the Macedonia, having in mind that the country has experienced the worst and the longest transition after the Cold War. The aim of the paper is to identify the main difficulties and challenges that make this process less successful. Macedonia started this journey in 2001 by signing the PSA/MSA. Right after its independence the country has faced many internal and external challenges. The country id undergoing a 25 years’ transition period of democratization and consolidation. The road to EU Integration has made the country undergo many reforms in many fields. The country views the process of integration as a strategic objective. The EU union has shown its interest to include the aspiring countries from the Western Balkans in its family. There is a high percentage of citizens for this process. The political leadership has not been responsible for the reforms in the country that have been addressed by EU. The political leadership uses the EU membership as a rhetoric in political campaign rather than doing more for the process, the paper analyzes the rhetoric and the reality by different methodologies. Political leaders should do more for the EU Integration and consider themselves as the only responsible party.

The Western Balkans on its path to the European Union

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 9-24
Author(s):  
Silvana Mojsovska
Keyword(s):  
Regional Integration ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Western Balkans ◽  
Eu Accession ◽  
Eu Membership ◽  
Analysis And Synthesis ◽  
Accession Process ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Eu

EU membership has been a compelling goal for the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia), related to the bloc’s stability, economic prosperity and higher standard of living. Each of these countries pursues its own process of EU accession while being also a part of the regional initiatives under the auspices of the EU. This paper provides an overview of the EU accession process of the Western Balkan countries, focusing on their individual achievements and challenges, as well as common features and problems. Also, the content andprospects of regional integration of the Western Balkans through the Regional Economic Area (REA) programme, along with the role of the EU in supporting the regional perspective are discussed. The parallel Western Balkans engagement in both processes supports arguments for the prioritisation of the individual countries’ accession to the EU over Western Balkans regional integration, distinguishing also the challenges of both processes. The methodology for the elaboration of this paper includes methods of analysis and synthesis, based on extensive desk research of available materials.

scholarly journals Problems of the European union and its candidate countries’ mutual relations and flexible accession as a possible way of reviving the enlargement policy

2019 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-25
Author(s):  
Ivana Radic-Milosavljevic
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Potential Candidate ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Western Balkans ◽  
Eu Member States ◽  
Eu Membership ◽  
Democratic Tradition ◽  
Accession Process ◽  
Mutual Relations ◽  
The Eu

The article deals with the problem of the Western Balkans countries? accession and association process impasse. The author finds the key causes of this problem in the very nature of an asymmetric relationship between the EU and these countries with the Stabilization and Association Process laying in its core. Both sides have contributed to this problem: the EU with its overambitious approach to the region, vaguely defined and ever-changing criteria, but also the countries participating in the Process with their uncritical approach to the possible membership, unclearly defined interests and aims, slow reforms, and weak democratic tradition. For the process to be successfully continued, the author discusses the idea of its substantial remodeling towards a flexible process. In light of the frequent discussions about the possible moving of the European integration towards more differentiation, the process of flexible association or accession would enable EU membership only in selected policy areas. The policy areas would be chosen in accordance with the previously clearly defined and thoroughly analyzed interests and capabilities of the candidate and potential candidate countries. The author argues that the association/accession process should be separated as much as possible from the political conditioning in order to decrease the possibility of taking arbitrary decisions on whether the countries have advanced in the process or not. For the Western Balkan countries, this kind of less demanding process would be easier to accomplish and would allow more autonomy in choosing areas of integration and pace of accommodation. For the EU member states, it would provide a way to regain the credibility of its once most successful foreign policy activity.

scholarly journals Unia Europejska wobec Bałkanów Zachodnich w kontekście kryzysu migracyjnego w latach 2015‑2019

Politeja ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (3(66)) ◽  
pp. 157-169
Author(s):  
Wawrzyniec Banach
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Regional Security ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Western Balkans ◽  
Balkan Countries ◽  
Research Goal ◽  
Accession Process ◽  
Migration Crisis ◽  
The Eu

European Union towards Western Balkans in the Context of Migration Crisis 2015‑2019 The aim of the article is to analyse the actions taken by the European Union towards the Western Balkans in the context of the migration crisis. The study assumes that the migration crisis was an important factor accelerating the accession process of the Western Balkan countries to the European Union. In order to fulfil the research goal, an analysis of sources (European Union documents) was conducted. The paper uses elements of the theory of the regional security complex as a theoretical framework. Firstly, the activities of the European Union before the migration crisis are discussed. Next, the paper focuses on presenting the course of the crisis on the Western Balkan route. The further part of the study discusses the actions taken by the EU towards the countries of the Western Balkans in response to the migration crisis.

scholarly journals ‘The skies are empty and the continent is overflowing with insoluble problems’ – The Covid-19 crisis in the western Balkans and the failure of the EU

SEER ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-18
Author(s):  
Jens Becker ◽  
Ina Kulić
Keyword(s):  
Health Services ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Western Balkans ◽  
South Eastern ◽  
High Incidence ◽  
South Eastern Europe ◽  
Political Realities ◽  
The Eu

Many societies are still in the stranglehold of the coronavirus. China, South Korea and Taiwan have apparently overcome the pandemic but problems that are almost impossible to resolve are piling up in Europe. Despite the joint vaccination procurement campaign, the EU in particular is struggling to regulate the crisis domestically. The states of the western Balkans which have been relying on an EU perspective for years and which have repeatedly been put off, have also been hit hard, piling problems on top of health services that are, for a number of reasons, already seriously jeopardised. In view of the worsening situation - countries in central and south-eastern Europe are over-represented among those with the highest numbers of Covid-19 related deaths - we take a closer look at current practicalities and political realities in these ‘high incidence areas’, as the region is currently known (according to the Ost-Ausschuss der Deutschen Wirtschaft). This article focuses on the role of the EU, and how views of this are changing in the region, as well as that being played by other, apparently more nimble and agile, powers.

A Permanent Constitutional Assembly

2020 ◽  
pp. 197-214
Author(s):  
Markus Patberg
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Member State ◽  
Dual Role ◽  
The Other ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Constituent Power ◽  
Institutional Solution ◽  
The Eu

This chapter presents an institutional proposal for how citizens could be enabled—in the dual role of European and national citizens—to exercise constituent power in the EU. To explain in abstract terms what an institutional solution would have to involve, it draws on the notion of a sluice system, according to which the particular value of representative bodies consists in their capacity to provide both transmission and filter functions for democratic processes. On this basis, the chapter critically discusses the proposal that the Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs of Parliaments of the European Union (COSAC) should transform itself into an inter-parliamentary constitutional assembly. As this model allows constituted powers to continue to operate as the EU’s de facto constituent powers, it cannot be expected to deliver the functions of a sluice system. The chapter goes on to argue that a more convincing solution would be to turn the Convention of Article 48 of the Treaty on European Union into a permanent constitutional assembly composed of two chambers, one elected by EU citizens and the other by member state citizens. The chapter outlines the desirable features of such an assembly and defends the model against a number of possible objections.

From a Protectorate to a Member State of the European Union

2022 ◽  
pp. 278-296
Author(s):  
Liliana Reis
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Member State ◽  
European Commission ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Western Balkans ◽  
Independent State ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Academic Debate

The European Union was present in Kosovo even before the declaration of its independence. However, it was after 2008 and at the request of the Kosovar authorities to EU that Kosovo inaugurated a period of close ties with the organization, through the rule of law mission it launched for the country and through various programs of the European Commission, including the European Partnership Action Plan (EPAP) for Kosovo, Mechanism of the Stabilization and Association Process, and the Instrument of Pre-Accession (IPA). This chapter seeks to examine the evolution of European presence on Kosovo by analysing EULEX mission and other European instruments and the achievements by newly former states in achieving the Copenhagen criteria, contributing to the academic debate on the role of European Union aid in the new Western Balkans states for their emancipation and possible access to the organization. It also evaluates the mutualisation of responsibilities and maintenance of the European status quo in Kosovo, fostering a protectorate in an independent state.

Regional-Cosmopolitan Constituent Power

2020 ◽  
pp. 69-86
Author(s):  
Markus Patberg
Keyword(s):  
Member State ◽  
First Principles ◽  
Political Community ◽  
The Political ◽  
Constituent Power ◽  
The Public ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
The People ◽  
We The People ◽  
The Eu

This chapter deals with the question of whether the public narrative of ‘We, the people of Europe’, which claims constituent power for a cross-border demos composed of EU citizens, can be justified in terms of a systematic model. To that end, it draws on the political theory of regional cosmopolitanism, which holds that even though the EU is not a state, it has its own political community. The literature on regional cosmopolitanism offers two possible strategies of defending the idea of an EU-wide constituent power: a first-principles approach and a reconstructive approach. The chapter argues that only the latter proves viable, and then goes on to examine the merits of the model that it gives rise to. While regional-cosmopolitan constituent power plausibly responds to the fact that the EU has created a new group of addressees and authors of the law, it neglects the continuing importance of the member state peoples and fails to explain how an EU-wide constituent power could be reconciled with the compound and dependent nature of the EU polity.

scholarly journals Cooperation and Security: Examining the Political Discourse on Natural Gas Transit in Ukraine and Slovakia

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 5969
Author(s):  
Kateryna Yakovenko ◽  
Matúš Mišík
Keyword(s):  
Natural Gas ◽  
Energy Security ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
The Political ◽  
Nord Stream ◽  
Under Construction ◽  
The Eu

The COVID-19 pandemic appeared in the midst of developing the European Green Deal, the most ambitious project to decarbonise the EU’s economy to date. Among other issues, the project highlighted the challenges connected to the long-term role of natural gas as a fossil fuel in the European economy. Moreover, the changes to the gas architecture caused by the development of new import infrastructure (especially Nord Stream and its extension, which is currently under construction) put additional pressure on the transit countries, mainly of which are linked to the Brotherhood pipeline. These have been strong supporters of natural gas utilisation and harsh critics of new pipelines that circumvent their territories, as they consider energy transit to be an important part of their energy sectors. This research examines the political discourse on gas transit in Slovakia and Ukraine in order to identify the main arguments connected to these positions. The paper examines a total of 233 textual units from both countries for the period 2014–2018. It concludes that, while Ukraine sees transit predominantly through the lens of cooperation with the EU and other actors, the Slovak political discourse considers gas transit in terms of energy security and the availability of gas for the national economy.

scholarly journals The Joint Arabic Investments Role at Aqaba Special Economic Zone: Marsa Zayed as a Model

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Hanem Rajab Ibrahem Al-Darwesh
Keyword(s):  
Role Model ◽  
Special Economic Zone ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Survey Method ◽  
Investment Climate ◽  
Arithmetic Means ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Economic Zone ◽  
Random Survey

The study addressed the role of Arabic investments in Aqaba special economic zone (ASEZ), and tried to answer the following questions: are the necessary potentials and features available in (ASEZ) to provide an attractive investment climate for the Arabic investments, what is the level of policies effectiveness for improving the investment climate in (ASEZ) to attract the Arabic investments, what is the level of guarantees effectiveness provided by (ASEZ) to encourage Arabic investments, and what is the level of investment privileges and facilities, related to the investments provided by (ASEZ) to attract the Arab investment to it. Data were collected through one study tool that consisted of 30 paragraphs by using Likert fifth scale. Study importance comes from its benefit to decision makers at (ASEZ) to avoid some of the pitfalls and barriers that face the investment in it, where the descriptive analytical approach was used to calculate the arithmetic means, standard deviations, percentages, and T-test on paragraphs of the questionnaire that was distributed by the simple random survey method. Study results showed the existence of distinctive characteristics within the investment climate at (ASEZ), and also concluded that (ASEZA) plays a big role in attracting Arabic investments to Aqaba, the study in return arrived to the existence of some barriers that limit the Arabic investments attraction to Aqaba, the most important of those are: management problems, multiple decision making parties, bureaucratic, and routine. The study recommended to reformulate operation of the united investment window, in a way that makes it a role model, to repair the internal house of government institutions and agencies dealing with investment, entrepreneurship or projects, and train staffs to facilitate the procedures offers for foreign investors, which encourage them to establish their projects there and improve the image of Jordan as an attractive country for investment and investors.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document