Instrument uvjetovanosti Europske unije u politici proširenja prema državama Istočne i Srednje Europe, te Zapadnog Balkana
The Instrument of Conditionality of the European Union in the Policy of Enlargement to the Countries of East and Central Europe and the Western Balkan

Summary/Abstract: In the Western Balkans, political conditionality of the EU is a multidimensional instrument with a multiple function directed toward reconciliation, renovation and reforms at the regional, national, bilateral and multilateral levels in order to meet the security, political, economic and social criteria. The objective of conditionality is also the integration of the Western Balkans in the European Union based on specified criteria, the fulfilling of which will bring a benefit and progress in the pre-accession process, bearing in mind the differentiation; rewarding countries according to the fulfilled criteria and individual merits. Although the principle, implementation and effects of the instrument of conditionality in the Western Balkans are largely based on the experience of the Fifth enlargement by the countries of East and Central Europe (Copenhagen criteria, pre-accession assistance, accession partnerships), this paper will outline the difference of past approach toward the countries of the region, which makes political conditionality more demanding, complex, understated, with less certain full membership for countries in the pre-accession process, lower level of financial assistance, with a burdened context of geopolitical and economic-recession developments in Europe and worldwide, whereby the region loses its priority within the EU, which is now in the stage of the “enlargement fatigue“.

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