The Stability Pact, the Stabilisation and Association Process and the New EU Strategy: An Attempt to Set out the Political Context
The Stability Pact, the Stabilisation and Association Process and the New EU Strategy: An Attempt to Set out the Political Context

Summary/Abstract: The year 1999 marked a turning point in European policy with a set of new approaches being applied for South Eastern Europe (SEE). The Stabilisation and Association Process (SAP) gave the countries of the Western Balkans the prospect of European integration. Specific projects of the Stability Pact (SP) made this new prospect tangible, fostering a hitherto unknown level of regional cooperation. With the new instruments Common Foreign and Security Policy and European Security and Defence Policy successfully applied in the Balkans, the EU possesses a range of political instruments and strategies and sufficient experience to keep the regional development under control. The entire set of EU policies in SEE may be regarded as a strategy of regime change using non-military instruments. Yet, only if SEE can be transformed into a region of sustainable stability, growing prosperity and firmly established peace, Europe could prove that it has the better security strategies that are worth being applied in other regions of the world. But, stability in the Balkans is far from being achieved. Therefore, in 2005, the undecided status issues have to be resolved in the framework of a holistic approach with full responsibility transferred to the region. The momentum generated by the SAP and the SP must be fully used. The EU must offer the prospect of an advancing towards integration as a compensation for compromises and sacrifices needed in order to solve the status issues.

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