balkan states
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2022 ◽  
pp. 191-208
Author(s):  
Bruno Ferreira Costa

The accession of the Balkan countries to the European Union is a desire and objective of several political leaders and a commitment of the European institutions themselves. This path represents one of the objectives of the Republic of Serbia, and negotiations are currently taking place regarding compliance with the different accession chapters. Serbia's integration entails several challenges, being a decisive instrument to heal the wounds of the Balkan War and an opportunity to rebuild political, social, diplomatic, and economic relations across the region. This chapter sets out to discover these challenges and seeks to analyze the current moment of negotiation, outlining the possible paths for the country's integration into the European Union and the respective impact on subsequent negotiations with other Balkan States. Among the remaining doubts regarding the integration of the Serbian State and the conviction that the path of the European Union inevitably passes through this integration, what challenges will the negotiation face in the coming years?


2022 ◽  
pp. 91-110
Author(s):  
Jure Požgan ◽  
Ana Bojinović Fenko ◽  
Faris Kočan

This chapter addresses the process of the European Union's enlargement towards the Western Balkan states. It seeks to add to the theorisation of solidarity in international relations (IR) by applying the concept of solidarity to empirical analysis of the EU–WB relationship. The findings show that solidarity as a special relationship has initially been a more relevant framework for understanding the EU-WB relationship. However, the global crises, enlargement fatigue, and great powers competition in the region have forced the EU to strengthen both the special relationship as well as solidarity as a friendship practice. What is currently still missing is a more assertive strategic communications approach by the EU in the WB states in order to be able to continue to strengthen its own legitimacy, the legitimacy of its contribution, and expectations in the solidarity relationship with the WB. Simultaneously, the EU also needs stronger commitment to the liberal values in the EU itself as well as support from other Western powers.


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.


2021 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
pp. 75-88
Author(s):  
Paweł Olszewski

This article deals with the important topic of the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans and its place in the perspective of the so-called Green Deal of the European Union. The author discusses the issue of the green deal and agenda from the perspective of the Union's foreign policy and the process of adaptation of the Balkans in the integration process. The topic of the participation of the Western Balkans in the pro-ecological activities of the European Union is based on a collective document presented in 2019 by the European Union as the Green Deal, setting new directions for the development of EU policy. The countries of the Western Balkans have dealt with this issue extensively in the document entitled "Sofia Declaration for the implementation of the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans". Their activities in this area are related not only to the fulfillment of assumptions regarding environmental protection but also in the context of the potential enlargement of the European Union and the willingness to join the group of Member States. In this regard, the Balkan states perceive the Green Agenda as a broader spectrum of their functioning in united Europe and the possibility of appearing on the European arena by fitting into the pan-European trend. The complexity of these processes is extremely large and covers several aspects, the implementation of which is possible not only with the support of the European Union but above all as part of the development of regional cooperation.


Author(s):  
Agata Domachowska ◽  

For many years, the priority of foreign policy determined by subsequent governments of the six Western Balkan countries, i.e., Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia has been their accession to the European Union. Yet, in recent years, this process has slowed down, and so it can be assumed that in the coming years there will be no further enlargement of the EU to include any of the Western Balkan countries. The following article is aimed at analysing the present status of European integration with regard to the aforementioned states, and discusses the causes of regression in this process which can be identified on the side of the non-EU Western Balkan states and the European Union itself. Their integration is also a key issue in the context of the increasingly stronger presence of non-EU players such as China, Russia, and Turkey, all competing with the European Union for influence in this important region. The study was based on discourse analysis (including the critical discourse analysis approach) and content analysis.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 158-163
Author(s):  
Mukesh Shankar Bharti

Initially, in the first half of the 1990s, Russia’s plans to include the countries of the former Eastern bloc within the EU were not seen as a threat to its interests. Furthermore, in the context of NATO’s enlargement, some Russians regarded them as an advantageous alternative. Russia is aware that the EU enlargement with the Central and Eastern European states resulted in a present increase in the number of EU members supporting close trans-Atlantic relations. Moscow’s fears of further EU enlargement were softened due to a dispute that continues to grow within the Union, regarding the rationale and limits of further enlargement, primarily for the Balkan states, Turkey, and the CIS states. Moscow expects that the reluctance of European societies towards further enlargement will inhibit this process. The external relations dimension of the European Union's enlargement to Central and Eastern Europe has received surprisingly little attention despite the fact that in the long‐term the issues it raises may be far more important than those currently dominating the debate. Nowhere is this more likely to be correct than about Russia, for which the EU's enlargement poses a risk of increasing isolation from the rest of Europe. The danger of creating a new dividing line across Europe is widely recognised, and the challenge, therefore, is to find ways of ensuring that Russia can be fully integrated with Europe while almost certainly remaining outside the EU Itself. This article focuses on relations between the EU and Russia and addresses three fundamental questions: how Russia has responded to the prospect of the EU's eastern enlargement; the specific issues arising from expansion, and the kind of long‐term relationship that could develop between Russia and an enlarged EU.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 321-348
Author(s):  
Artur Adamczyk

The main aim of the article is to present and analyze the evolution of Greek policy towards the Balkans from the end of the Cold War to the present day. The article uses the chronological-descriptive method and a case study. The article indicates that initially Greek policy in the region was reactive, conservative, nationalist, and based on cooperation with the Serbian government of Milosevich, which led to the marginalization of its importance in the Balkans. Only the Europeanization of Greek politics and the reliance on Euro- Atlantic structures strengthens Athens’ position among its Balkan neighbors. Undoubtedly, the financial crisis hampered the effectiveness of Greece’s Balkan policy, which is currently ambitiously rebuilding its image as an advocate of the Balkan states in the EU and NATO.


Author(s):  
Stefanos Katsikas

Drawing from a wide range of primary archival and secondary Greek, Bulgarian, and Turkish sources, the book explores the way the Muslim populations of Greece were ruled by state authorities from Greece’s political emancipation from the Ottoman Empire in the 1820s up to the country’s entrance into World War II, in October 1940. In particular, the book examines how state rule influenced the development of the Muslim populations’ collective identity as a minority and how it affected Muslim relations with the Greek authorities, Greek Orthodox Christians, and other ethnic and religious groups. Greece was the first country to become an independent state in the Balkans and a pioneer in experimenting with minority issues. With regards to its Muslim populations, Greece’s ruling framework, and many of the country’s state administrative measures and patterns were to serve as a template at a later stage in other Christian Orthodox Balkan states with Muslim minorities (e.g., Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Cyprus): Muslim religious officials were empowered with authorities they did not have in Ottoman times, and aspects of Islamic law (sharia) were incorporated into the state legal system to be used for Muslim family and property affairs. The book shows that these and any policies can be ambivalent and cannot be a guide to present-day solutions. It also argues that religion remained a defining element and that religious nationalism and public institutions played an important role in the development of religious and ethnic identity.


2021 ◽  
pp. 214-230
Author(s):  
Stefanos Katsikas

The conclusion draws on the analysis in previous chapters to address some theoretical questions about nation-state formation and communal diversity. What was the role of religion in the formation of individual and collective identity, and to what extent was loyalty to one’s faith also a function of the institutional framework that supported it? To what extent did the institutional framework for administering the Muslim population of Greece—which became a template in other Eastern Orthodox Balkan states—succeeded in protecting the Muslims’ cultural uniqueness from assimilation? How did this framework frame Muslim relations with the Greek state, ethnic Greeks, and other ethnic and religious groups in the country? Given that it has been often suggested that aspects of sharia be adopted by European states with Muslim migrants in order to secure fair and equal treatment for them by the states, what lessons can we draw from the Greek case?


2021 ◽  
pp. 133-137
Author(s):  
Roman HADJIKOSEV

The article presents a little-known Bulgarian literary work, the play "Balkan Comedy" by Boris Rumenov (Boryu Zevzeka). It was written during the Balkan Wars (1912-1918) and presents the relations between the Balkan states at that time in an allegorical way. The play is the most popular work of Boris Rumenov, who, before and after the wars, was the editor-in-chief of one of the most successful humorous newspapers in Bulgaria called "Drum". He and Stoyan Shakle, one of Rumenov’s closest friends, who wrote for the newspaper, founded a touring theater. They performed all over the country for years and the most popular play was "Balkan Comedy". During the First World War, the play was performed on all fronts of the Bulgarian army, usually by amateur actors, and it generated incredible enthusiasm and patriotic inspiration, thus enjoying a huge success. "Balkan Comedy" was an essential part of the theatrical performances, which also included songs, sketches, recitations and other popular forms of entertainment. As it reflected the actual historical events, the play was presented in its first three acts until 1918, and after the end of the war, the author added a fourth act, which, however, had a different emphasis from the end of the third one.


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