THE EU APPROACH TO THE WESTERN BALKANS: A SECURITY OR POLITICAL ISSUE?

Author(s): Andrea Ferrero,Ruth Ferrero-Turrión / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2015

This paper will focus on the policies developed by the European Union towards the Western Balkans, especially those related to human mobility and visa liberalization. The main target of the paper will be to show how the conditionality policies towards these countries have been developed related to security, geopolitical needs and interests, instead of the objective/technical criteria stated in the communitarian official documents. We will see how the last enlargements of the Union have affected considerably the different positions adopted by member states in their approach toward the Balkan countries, especially in relation to chapters 23 and 24 of the negotiation agreements, dealing with issues of Justice and Home Affairs. Since then, the pragmatic approach of the Union has been reinforced, so that the accession of candidates has been delayed in time. However, some things might change, if we take into consideration the current refugee and Ukraine crises, the new relationships that have been developed with Russia (especially by Serbia), and Greece’s approach towards Moscow on the verge of the economic crisis. If the European Union has, until now, followed a stick-and-carrot approach towards the Balkans in order to maintain a security belt on its southeast border, this approach might change within a new geopolitical context. In this paper we will analyse the visa liberalization process and its developments since Thessaloniki 2003, to show how the decisions taken by the Union have been more linked to political matters related to security than to technical reasons related to passport design.

SERBIA'S EU PATH: BEYOND THE COMPLEXITY OF AN INSTITUTIONAL PROCESS

Author(s): Dragos Ionita / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2015

This study seeks to bring a new understanding of Serbia’s European integration and the implications for its external policy in the context of the current geopolitical decisions taken in the region. The aim is to emphasize the complexity of the enlargement process, as well as the difficulties created by Kosovo’s decision to declare independence (2008). The first section focuses on the analysis of the consequences of ethnic and / or interstate conflicts from the ‘90s, in order to underline the importance of the wars for the disintegration of Yugoslavia in the accession process and their role in determining the further institutional steps of Serbia. The second section is dedicated to describing Serbia's rapprochement with the EU and its future steps towards joining the organization. The main hypothesis is that Serbia’s accession process is no different from that of former candidates. Nevertheless, the weight of the wars for the disintegration of Yugoslavia and Kosovo’s decision will play an important role in the negotiation process. The last section is dedicated to a case study on Kosovo, the decision of declaring its independence still representing a source of diplomatic disputes between Serbia and the EU. In order to give a better understanding of the implications of this decision, an analysis of the main challenges is conducted within this section. The analysis focuses on several topics: the reaction of the five EU opponents to the decision, the future of the Albania-Kosovo relation, the reaction of the main EU institutions and the development of a “Kosovo precedent”.

CHANGING FROM WITHIN? THE INTRA-ORGANIZATIONAL DYNAMICS OF EU ENLARGEMENT

Author(s): Velibor Jakovlevski / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2015

This paper opens up the black box of enlargement, focusing on how the intra-organizational relationships among the Council of the European Union, the European Commission, and the European Parliament affect the process of enlargement. Formally speaking, enlargement is an intergovernmental process, suggesting that member states are firmly in control of its outcomes. However, the EU’s supranational actors, specifically the European Parliament and European Commission also attempt to influence enlargement at various stages. I posit that the process of enlargement to the Western Balkans has evolved, influenced by changing constraints which are operating on the aforementioned actors. The added value of this work is in disaggregating the enlargement process based on its institutionalized relationships in both a vertical and horizontal dimension. It provides a supply-side argument for how enlargement policy has evolved from within the EU, rather than simply as a function of external factors.

THE WESTERN BALKANS BETWEEN INTERNAL TRANSITIONS AND THE EU INTEGRATION PROCESS

Author(s): Elira Luli / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2015

The Balkan region is still a “hot” zone where old legacies of the past interfere with the present and contribute to the transition processes of the countries there. The region seems committed to follow an EU-bound path, although it faces many challenges in terms of meeting the standards for EU and NATO membership. Somehow, persistent conflicts delay finding solutions. The difficult democratic transition, the lack of will and shallow political culture of regional elites delay the process of bringing these countries forward. This profound transition unfortunately occurs while the EU, on one hand, is trying to play the arbitrator part having promised to assume full leadership role and, on the other hand, tries to restrain the voices of those Euro-Sceptics who have been increasing their numbers recently. Meanwhile, a deterioration of the situation in the Balkans might have a negative impact across Europe and decrease the credibility of the EU as the main foreign policy and security actor in the whole region. This paper will first analyse the transition processes in the Balkans and the back and forth efforts to leave behind the past and head toward a common European perspective. Secondly, it will analyse the required active role of the EU and the urgency for a closer monitoring of the situation in this region. Thirdly, it emphasises the need to encourage public diplomacy in the region in order to mitigate conflicts and promote cooperation between the people there.

THE IMPACT OF EU CONDITIONALITY IN THE WESTERN BALKANS. A COMPARATIVE APPROACH: BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA – BULGARIA

Author(s): Octavia Moise / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2015

The purpose of this article is to analyse the security environment at the beginning of the XXIst century and to assess the impact of EU conditionality in the Western Balkans. The paper will analyse the redistribution of power and the new challenges that send the European Union at a crossroad. To explain such complex phenomena, we will use a comprehensive framework based on realism, liberal institutionalism, and constructivism. The central part of the paper will analyse EU conditionality in the Western Balkans – along with its characteristics, particularities, difficulties – and the impact of the degree of sovereignty. The case-study will provide a comparative analysis between EU conditionality in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Bulgaria proving that sovereignty matters for the conditionality-compliance relationship.

BOOK REVIEW. 2014. NATO-EU: A Smarter Collaboration

Author(s): Monica Oproiu / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2015

review of: ------------------ Gabriela Horoşanu. 2014. NATO-EU: A Smarter Collaboration, Bucharest, Tritonic Publishing House, 194 pages, ISBN: 978-606-8571-41-6.

BENEFICIARIES OF THE SECOND ORDER ELECTION MODEL: RADICAL RIGHT PARTIES IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

Author(s): Luiza Maria Filimon / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2015

After the latest European electoral cycle, right wing parties on the far side of the political spectrum along with right-wing euro-sceptics and conservative anti-federalists won 112 seats. The presence of the radical right in the European Parliament (EP), has often been attributed to the second order election model theorised by Reif and Schmitt (1980). In European elections, turnout is traditionally lower compared to “first” order national elections, parties in government tend to lose vote-shares while smaller parties benefit from the European system of proportional representation. This article analyses the relationship between radical parties and the EP by examining the French and Danish results in the 2014 elections. Though both constitute the third political force in their countries at that time, Front National and Dansk Folkeparti’s electoral support is representative of a second order election. The former party benefited from a classic sanction vote while the second one owes its breakthrough to a particular Danish voting behaviour, somewhat singular in the European Union. The article offers an in-depth overview of the literature on both the radical right, the Second Order Election model as well as radical right parties’ dynamic at the European Parliament level.

MORE EXPECTATIONS TOWARDS THE EUROPEAN NEIGHBOURHOOD POLICY: THE CASE OF UKRAINE

Author(s): Mihaela-Adriana Padureanu / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2015

Through the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), the European Union aimed at offering a stable framework for the development of its neighbouring countries. The Eastern dimension of this policy, the Eastern Partnership, proved to be the catalyst for an unprecedented internal wave of protests. Ukraine, probably the most demanding country in the ENP, has posed a great challenge to this framework. In this article I offer an analysis of those events from the perspective of the EU to show that the factors for these surprising events are rooted in Ukraine’s internal structure. As the conflict in Ukraine is still ongoing at the moment of writing, I complete my analysis with the Minsk 2 agreements. My argument is that the aim to get close to the EU has been motivated by Ukraine’s desire to obtain a political system based on good governance, which was at the same time another goal. I explain the desire to sign the Association Agreement and the deepening of relations with the EU as attempts to ensure that the country would not transform its internal political regime in order to look more like the Russian Federation.

Sovereignty in terms of ethics and morality as instruments of humanitarian interventions

Author(s): Paul Popa / Language(s): English Issue: 02/2015

In an international system characterized by interdependencies, morality and ethics have played over time an important role in determining the relations among actors. These concepts may impose responsibility to actors to respect their interactions and this paper aims to make an analysis on how sovereignty is affected by morality and ethics as instruments of interventions in conflict areas.

Humanitarian interventions, responsibility to protect versus state sovereignty. The BRICS countries perspectives

Author(s): Anca Ioana STĂNIŞTEANU,Marcela Mihaela Stanişte / Language(s): English Issue: 02/2015

The rise of emerging powers is challenging the current traditional world order dominated by the Western powers. Countries like the ones in the BRICS claim a greater role in the formulation of international politics and in the main international institutions based on their increased economic power. This paper aims to analyze their perspectives on humanitarian interventions and Responsibility to Protect. The BRICS are traditional countries in terms of state sovereignty and rejected the concept from the beginning (2001). In 2005, the five countries signed for the implementation of the concept and agree with the first two pillars of the concept, but disagree with the implementation of the third pillar, the actual military interventions

A Soviet-Yugoslav ideological war: the exchange of letters of April-June 1958

Author(s): Sanda Borsa,Mihai Croitor / Language(s): English Issue: 02/2015

In 1954, Nikita Khrushchev was making the first step towards the normalization of the Soviet-Yugoslav relations, which intensified significantly between 1955 and 1956. And yet, in 1958, the two sides engaged in a sarcastic exchange of letters regarding the draft programme of the 7th Congress of the LCY. Relying on documents from the Romanian archives, the present paper is trying to illustrate the main ideological differences marking the abovementioned exchange of letters.

A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE EUROPEAN MEDIATION

Author(s): Raffaele Aveta / Language(s): English Issue: 1 (30)/2016

The EU directive 2008/52/EC has represented for many European countries the occasion to introduce a consistent discipline of the civil and commercial mediation. This regulatory vigour deserves an appropriate deepening, since it represents an outline of the regulatory pluralism which is possible to draw from, in order to renew the community model in regard to mediation matters. The unique distinctions existing among the member states constitute, indeed, the “living base” to identify the best practices operative at a state level. In particular, the purpose of the essay is to focus the attention to the Romanian, Spanish, Italian and Irish legislations which show peculiar elements and give efficient regulatory schemes, especially when the model proposed at a national level presents itself as independent and original compared with the not always valiant choices enacted at a European stage.

EUROSCEPTICISM AS A RESPONSE TO EU POLICIES: PERSPECTIVES AFTER 2014

Author(s): Lavinia-Ioana Opriș / Language(s): English Issue: 15/2015

By virtue of its many definitions, Euroscepticism has become an extremely broad concept encompassing a staggering variety of meanings. It is our contention that, while the temptation to classify the EU-Euroscepticism link along the lines of simplistic dualities such as friend and foe, good and bad is indeed justifiable, the reality is far more nuanced and intriguing

On the Future Role of Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia as an “International Development Corridor”

Author(s): Gennady Mikhaylovich Fedorov,Anna Valerievna Belova,Lidia Gennadjevna OSMOLOVSKAYA / Language(s): English Issue: 19/2015

Kaliningrad Oblast of the Russian Federation has a unique position in the Baltic Sea Region due to its physiographic situation and, thereby, it plays an active role in geopolitical and economic processes that occur in the Baltic Sea Region. This, first of all, happens owing to its exclave position that causes to a great extent a necessity for close cross-border integration for the developing economy of the Oblast. The article considers new spatial forms of international economic integration (NSFIEI) contributing to the development of border regions; distinguishing of the border regions as international “development corridors” has been substantiated within the general region classification; the place of Kaliningrad Oblast regarding the level of economic development and maturity of external relations among the border regions of Russia has been shown; its role as an "international development corridor" of Russia and EU has also been viewed. The comparative method and the technique of economic geography classification have been applied.

Germany and the Crisis in Transatlantic Relations

Author(s): Jadwiga Kiwerska / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

Donald Trump’s presidency proved to be a great challenge for the transatlantic community. One of the factors of the breakdown in American-European relations was the change of US strategy towards Europe, resulting from Trump’s approach to international relations, in which the narrowly understood American interest counts the most. In this new situation, Germany has lost the position of a close and valuable partner of the USA, and has become a dangerous economic and commercial competitor, or a financial burden in terms of security. Germany’s tactics in the face of increasing tension in mutual relations and the crisis in transatlantic relations consisted of either attempting to settle the dispute or shifting the burden of negotiations with the US on the European Union forum, and finally assertiveness towards some of Trump’s demands. Germany also returned to the concept of building Europe’s strategic autonomy and taking over the role of a global player by the EU, which does not change the fact that European security capabilities will be insufficient and ineffective for a long time without American support.

Multilateralism as Germany’s Response to Change in International Order in the 21st Century

Author(s): Joanna Dobosz-Dobrowolska / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

The change of paradigms defining the foreign policy of the main centers of power: the US, Russia and China, along with the subsequent transformation of relations between these powers, determined global relations. They have transformed the political order and, due to the change of the canon of values and norms desirable in international relations, have seriously undermined the foundations of formal and legal order. Article deals with Germany’s attitude to the changes in the international order. The aims of the research process are: Identification of the main assumption of the German policy selected in response to the changes occurring in the world and Assessment of the coherence of the German and EU approach.

Multilateralizm i partnerstwo strategiczne w dyplomacji Heiko Maasa (marzec 2018 – marzec 2019)

Author(s): Aleksandra Kruk / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2019

The aim of the article is to analyze the activities of Heiko Maas in the first year of office of the German Foreign Minister. The politician presented himself as a supporter of multilateralism (with specific norms, agreements and institutions) and strategic partnership in international politics. He promoted the concept of building an „Alliance for Multilateralism”, characterizing this initiative as being open to states adhering to democratic principles and ready to cooperate in international politics.

Strategiczni partnerzy czy systemowi konkurenci? Ewolucja polityki Niemiec wobec Chin

Author(s): Tomasz Morozowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2019

The strategic partnership established between the Federal Republic of Germany and the People’s Republic of China in 2004 has evolved significantly over the last 15 years. Along with this evolution, also the attitude of the government and political, academic and economic elites in Germany has been changing. The process of change was symbolized by describing China as a “systemic competitor” by the Federation of German Industries (BDI) in January 2019. Germany has noted the failure of the “change through rapprochement” model applied to China and the necessity to revise the approach towards the new Chinese foreign policy under the leadership of Xi Jinping and the increasing role of PRC on the global arena, which causes new problems in the relations between Germany, EU and China. In the article the evolution of German policy towards China since the beginning of 21st century has been analyzed, with the focus on dynamic changes between 2016 and 2019. The purpose of the article is answering several questions: how has German policy towards China been changing? How was this process influenced by the failure of “change through rapprochement” model applied to PRC? Which problems in the German-Chinese relations were crucial to Berlin’s policy and in which way did they shape it? Is China still a strategic partner, or already a systemic competitor for Germany?

German Chinapolitik in the Era of the Belt and Road Initiative

Author(s): Joanna Ciesielska-Klikowska / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2019

The German-Chinese relations have significantly intensified over the last years. As part of the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative (since 2013), China strives to strengthen its relations with the Federal Republic of Germany, using them as an alternative to the deteriorating transatlantic relations. Germany is now to be the main partner in the promotion of free trade, climate protection and the construction of a multipolar world. For this purpose, the PRC puts away disputable issues in Sino-German relations, for example by speeding up the legalization of German political foundations in China. However, the intensification of these associations does not mean that there are no problems and rivalry on the political and economic levels. A huge challenge for Berlin has been in recent years, i.e. the issue of building a Chinese sphere of influence in Central and Eastern Europe through the 16+1 cooperation, the acquisition of strategic German enterprises and China’s investment activity in Africa. The article highlights Germany’s approach to selected problems in relations with China, analyzing the contemporary Chinapolitik. The text has been divided into several parts - in the first one, the author highlights the contemporary German-Chinese relations, then analyzes the critical fields of cooperation and competition (“16+1” Initiative, Chinese takeovers of German companies, competition in Africa) and completes the whole paper with a summary.

Bajden u Beogradu

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 028/2009