Towards Better Monitoring of Democracy in the Western Balkans - Improving Functioning of Democratic Institutions as a Key Instrument in EC’s Reports
Towards Better Monitoring of Democracy in the Western Balkans - Improving Functioning of Democratic Institutions as a Key Instrument in EC’s Reports

Author(s): Miloš Pavković, Đorđe Dimitrov
Subject(s): Politics, Government/Political systems, EU-Accession / EU-DEvelopment
Published by: Centar za evropske politike CEP
Keywords: Western Balkans; democracy; EC reports; monitoring;
Summary/Abstract: Democracy and functioning democratic institutions are some of the key criteria and necessary prerequisites for a country to join the European Union (EU). First established at the Copenhagen European Council summit, as part of the so-called political criteria, it was additionally strengthened in 2020 with the Revised Enlargement Methodology (REM) by placing the sub-area ‘Functioning of democratic institutions’ (FoDI) in the Fundamentals cluster (Cluster 1). In that sense, the role of the European Commission (EC) and its annual country report for candidates serve as the most relevant source of information for the state of play in this area on which important decisions within the accession process are made, by EC and other EU competent bodies. The importance of credible reporting in the FoDI area has been once again confirmed by the decision of the European Council (EUCO) to start accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova, highlighting the necessity in their respective negotiating frameworks for preparing a roadmap for the functioning of democratic institutions.4 Finally, the newly adopted Growth Plan for the Western Balkans emphasises the Fundamentals as a condition for EU financial support.

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