Fourteen years have passed since the European Union-Western Balkan summit in Thessaloniki in June 2003 where the process know as the Thessaloniki Agenda was adopted confirming the EU accession perspective for the countries of the region. The language adopted was unequivocal: “The future of the Balkans is within the European Union”.
Political and economic prospects in the Western Balkans seemed promising in early 2000s, with countries leaning to the European Union for a prosperous future. Unfortunately, new and old Balkan problems are (re)emerging today, with political and ethnic divisions more entrenched than before due to poor economic performance, instability, corruption and lack of clear–cut prospects for the future. In the meantime, rising euroscepticism and "enlargement fatigue" in the EU have resulted into a stand–by of future enlargements.
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The February 2014 protests in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) have highlighted a crisis which is more than social and economic. The paper summarizes the latest events in the BiH political scene in the context of the failing EU integration process, debating the different stances about renewed international engagement in the country. It argues that the Dayton system, which brought war to an end in 1995, needs reshaping and that the recent protests could represent the emergence of a new political actor, ready to move the country out of ethnic quagmire
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The paper argues that, although it lost political relevance, the Europeanization of Western Balkans continues to offer results. While the so-called “enlargement fatigue” is generally overestimated, it has rather been bilateral controversies and domestic problems that obstructed the enlargement. Most of all it is the length of the process that should worry. Thus engaging the local public spheres has become fundamental to successfully accomplish the process and to avoid the serious risk of marginalizing the region.
This analysis aims at explaining the nature of Russian foreign policy towards the Balkans taking into account the role of the European Union as an increasingly important player in this radically changed geopolitical context.
