POLICYMAKING IN THE WESTERN BALKANS. Creating Demand for Evidence beyond EU Conditionality
POLICYMAKING IN THE WESTERN BALKANS. Creating Demand for Evidence beyond EU Conditionality

Author(s): Author Not Specified
Subject(s): Politics, Governance, Post-Communist Transformation, EU-Accession / EU-DEvelopment
Published by: Centar za Evropske Politike CEP
Keywords: Western Balkans EU accession; conditionality;
Summary/Abstract: The six countries of the Western Balkans, all EU-membership aspirants, find themselves in different stages of the EU integration process. The characteristics of the EU’s enlargement approach towards the Western Balkans requires these countries to deliver concrete, tangible, and sustainable results before becoming members. In the previous enlargement rounds, the EU has never deployed such complex mechanisms to assess and monitor the quality of implemented reforms. This situation is new both for the EU Commission and the candidate countries,1 implying that the EU is also learning from its experiences and mistakes and innovating its methodology for assessing the results made by the candidate countries. The Western Balkan countries themselves are investing in developing new tools and mechanisms to report and monitor the achieved results. More precisely, improvements are made with regards to data collection and analysis methods, the quality and reliability of data, and more constructive engagement with civil society stakeholders.

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