Western Balkans – a lost year or a useful year?
Western Balkans – a lost year or a useful year?

Author(s): Július Lőrincz
Subject(s): Government/Political systems, International relations/trade, EU-Accession / EU-DEvelopment
Published by: Research Center of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association (RC SFPA)
Keywords: Western Balkans; Slovakia; political leadership; EU Integration;
Summary/Abstract: The Western Balkans have traditionally been a focal point of Slovak foreign policy interests and activities. They represent a chapter in the strategies and goals of external relations that have been shaped within a specific historical context, and through social, cultural and economic contact with the nations living in the neighborhood of Central and Southeastern Europe, and with whom we often share similar destinies. Today that context is mainly about building a secure, peaceful, prosperous and integrated Europe as part of the Euro-Atlantic structures. Slovakia and the Western Balkans occupy different places and play different roles in this process, but they are connected by their common desire to belong to the modernizing plank of society, overcoming the legacy of the recent past, and its sometimes dramatic and even tragic consequences, especially in the military conflicts of the 1990s when Yugoslavia collapsed. It is understandable, therefore, that compared to the leaders of other countries, especially in Western Europe, Slovakia’s political leaders are more sensitive to events connected with the EU integration efforts of the Western Balkan countries and to the obstacles stemming from Balkan and/or wider European policy.

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