Saradnja ili ništa: Berlinski proces kao put ka desekuritizaciji i evropeizaciji Balkana
Cooperation or Nothing: "Berlin Process" as a Path Toward the Securitisation and Europeanisation of the Balkans

Author(s): Petar Marković, Stefan Vukotić
Subject(s): International relations/trade, EU-Accession / EU-DEvelopment
Published by: Fakultet političkih nauka Univerziteta u Beogradu
Keywords: Western Balkans; Balkan Process; regional integration; Europeanization; conditionality
Summary/Abstract: Croatia’s accession to the EU came at an important price of doing away with the problematic practices from the past, but the other countries may have more difficulties doing that on their own, not least because the majority of their weaknesses underlined in EU country reports are common and can best be solved by working together. The recently launched “Berlin Process” – a regional initiative focusing on closer multilateral cooperation in the Western Balkans with a view to prospective EU accession – set to provide one such framework for concerted regional problem-solving. This paper opens with an analysis of the current regional state of play, followed by a projection of the prospective outcomes of the cooperation within the Process. A loose, non-state, non-Yugoslav, union in which they would join forces to enhance their economies, markets, education, health, etc. and also eradicate the criminal syndicates and inherent graft that has been eating away at them at least since the 1990s. In order to scrutinise the possible impact and scope of the initiative at hand, the paper endorses theories of neo-functionalism, Europeanisation and the Regional Security complex.

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