Illiberalising EU enlargement to the Western Balkans
Illiberalising EU enlargement to the Western Balkans

Author(s): Alejandro Esteso Pérez
Subject(s): Political Sciences, Governance, International relations/trade, Political behavior, Politics and law, EU-Approach / EU-Accession / EU-Development
Published by: EUROPEUM - Institut pro evropskou politiku
Keywords: illiberalism; EU enlargement; Western Balkans; Serbia; Hungary; Albania; Italy; democratic backsliding; authoritarianism; political tradeoffs;
Summary/Abstract: This paper develops an introductory insight into the process of illiberalisation of EU enlargement as both a policy and a political process. By shifting away from the many institutional accounts that focus exclusively on the role of the European Commission (EC), it awards a stronger agency to candidate countries and Member States—which at times gets diluted or simply goes overlooked—in an attempt to highlight their responsibilities and accountabilities throughout the process. It proposes an exploratory causal model to track illiberalisation, whereby candidate countries and Member States interact with each other in search of leverage and political tradeoffs, ultimately leading to an illiberal manipulation of the EU enlargement policy. It explores two pairs of countries, all illiberal to varying degrees—Serbia and Hungary, and Albania and Italy—which showcase different structural traits, both in their bilateral relations and in themselves, and which reveal that the illiberalisation of EU enlargement is conducted at different speeds and through very diverse channels. The study draws from qualitative data sources featuring a set of six semi-structured interviews with representatives from EU institutions—including the EC and the European Parliament (EP)—and Member States, think-tanks, and academia conducted in Prague, Brussels and online between late October and early December 2024. The documentary analysis is further informed and complemented by a series of written secondary data including news stories, press statements, policy documents, and academic journal articles.

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