The Europeanisation of the Western Balkans : a failure of EU conditionality?

Abstract

This volume casts a fresh look on how the political spaces of the Western Balkan states (Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania) are shaped, governed and transformed during the EU accession process. The contributors argue that EU conditionality in the Western Balkans does not work ‘effectively’ in terms of social change because rule transfer remains a ‘contested’ business, due to veto-players on the ground and strong legacies of the past. The volume examines specific policy areas, salient in the enlargement process and to a different degree incorporated in the accession criteria, as well as EU foreign policy in the spheres of post-conflict stabilisation, democratization and the rule of law promotion. Jelena Džankić is Research Fellow and Coordinator of the Global Citizenship Observatory (GLOBALCIT) at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute (EUI), Italy. Soeren Keil is Reader in Politics and International Relations at Canterbury Christ Church University in Kent, UK. Marko Kmezić is Assistant Professor at the Centre for Southeast European Studies at the University of Graz, Austria.