The EU’s political conditionality in the Western Balkans: towards a more pragmatic approach
- 12 December 2008
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis Ltd in Southeast European and Black Sea Studies
- Vol. 8 (4), 365-377
- https://doi.org/10.1080/14683850802556384
Abstract
The article discusses the nature of the EU’s political conditionality in the Western Balkans, and the effort of the EU to manage the diversity of bilateral agreements in a small space with a mixed record of compliance. The Western Balkan region reveals special trends in the EU’s handling of the strategy of political conditionality, and some creeping contradictions and dangers are beginning to reveal the changing nature and the limits of conditionality. More specifically, the EU (a) is adding further, yet necessary, political conditions and criteria to weaker or more reluctant partners and emphasizes the ‘journey’ rather than the outcome of accession, affecting the credibility of the strategy; (b) is blending together normative, functional and realpolitik claims in the choice of its conditions, affecting the clarity of its intentions; (c) is pursuing, in some cases, a rigorous assessment of compliance and, in other cases, a more adaptable and pragmatic assessment, affecting the consistency of the process. These Western Balkan trends are bound to become more pertinent in future cases, as the EU gets more involved with other more difficult states in its eastern and southern periphery, and where the carrot of membership will be either very distant or irrelevant.Keywords
This publication has 11 references indexed in Scilit:
- Change and Continuity in the European Union's Political Conditionality: Aims, Approach, and PrioritiesDemocratization, 2007
- European Regional Organizations, Political Conditionality, and Democratic Transformation in Eastern EuropeEast European Politics and Societies: and Cultures, 2007
- Europeanization and Regionalization in the EU’s Enlargement to Central and Eastern EuropePublished by Springer Science and Business Media LLC ,2005
- Lessons from Bosnia and Herzegovina: Travails of the European RajJournal of Democracy, 2003
- Costs, Commitment and Compliance: The Impact of EU Democratic Conditionality on Latvia, Slovakia and TurkeyJCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 2003
- Democratizations in the European PeripheryPublished by Oxford University Press (OUP) ,2003
- Veto PlayersPublished by Walter de Gruyter GmbH ,2002
- The Balkans: Democracy Without ChoicesJournal of Democracy, 2002
- Normative Power Europe: A Contradiction in Terms?JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 2002
- How does Europeanization affect CEE governance? Conditionality, diffusion and diversityJournal of European Public Policy, 2001