The European Union and the Balkans: an uncertain duet
The European Union and the Balkans: an uncertain duet

Summary/Abstract: The present article aims to analyze the relationship between the Balkan countries and the European Union between 1995 and 2019. The paper will be structured in two chapters. The first one will take into consideration three phases of the EU relationship with the Balkans, namely the years immediately after the war (1995), the first years of 2000 and, finally, the current times. It will be evident that the trust the former Yugoslavia initially had towards the European Union gradually diminished, leaving an empty space, occupied by others actors. The second chapter will try to find out the reasons why, nowadays, the European Union is seen by the Balkans not as positively as in the past. The analysis of the second section will try to investigate in depth not only the current times, but also the historical roots of Balkan mistrust towards Europe. It will emerge that a variety of historical, cultural, political and economical reasons ground the partial failure in making the Balkans closer to the European Union.

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