№147: Forever on the Periphery? The Return of Geopolitics to EU Enlargement to the Balkans
№147: Forever on the Periphery? The Return of Geopolitics to EU Enlargement to the Balkans

Author(s): Tomasz Żornaczuk
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, International relations/trade, EU-Accession / EU-DEvelopment
Published by: PISM Polski Instytut Spraw Międzynarodowych
Keywords: Balcans; Bosnia and Hercegovina; Croatia; European integration; European Union
Summary/Abstract: At the beginning of 2016, almost 13 years after the Thessaloniki declaration to integrate the Western Balkans into the European Union, Brussels is left with Croatia as a Member State, Montenegro half way, at best, to becoming one, Serbia with first negotiation chapters just opened, and half of the region with no clear prospect of membership. But the wait-and-see approach that the EU had been employing for a number of years towards the enlargement policy in the Balkans1has become even riskier in times of new international challenges. Among them, the ever-growing tensions between the West and Russia should, in particular, serve as motivation for the Union to look at enlargement in the Balkans from a geopolitical angle. Even if the Member States have in recent years shown less enthusiasm towards further rounds of enlargement, this should not discourage the EU institutions from undertaking an active role to revive the European integration process in the Balkans.

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