An agency of the EU

Overview

The EU’s policy for the Western Balkans is stabilisation through integration. In 2000 the Stabilisation and Association Process (SAP) was launched. This offered the countries of the region the ‘perspective’ of eventual EU membership. At the Thessaloniki EU-Western Balkans summit in June 2003, it was declared that ‘the future of the Balkans is within the European Union.’

The methods and instruments of the SAP are modelled on the experience of enlargement to Central and Eastern Europe, including Stabilisation and Association Agreements (SAAs), European Partnerships, and Annual Progress Reports, all driven forward by conditionality. Croatia has concluded accession negotiations with the EU and should sign the Accession Treaty by the end of 2011. To date, SAAs have been signed with Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Albania and Montenegro. Serbia has initialled the SAA, but signature awaits confirmation of Serbia’s full cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

In the war-torn Western Balkans region, the EU’s ‘soft power’ alone has not been enough to induce the same transformation as in Central and Eastern Europe. The region has been the site of the first EU security missions under ESDP: in FYROM, the successive military and police missions, and in BiH the EU Police Mission and the military mission EUFOR Althea are at work. In BiH, the EU Special Representative (EUSR) embodies the EU’s political and security commitment while also holding the post of the international community’s High Representative. EULEX Kosovo, the EU’s largest mission to date, is a CSDP rule-of-law mission with an executive mandate. It currently has around 2700 staff. EULEX took over responsibility for security and stability in Kosovo from the UN-mandated Interim Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).The progress of the Western Balkans towards EU integration is still overshadowed by the fragile and elusive stabilisation of the region.

Publications

  • The Western Balkans and the EU: 'the hour of Europe'

    Today, more than fifteen years after the end of the wars of Yugoslavia’s dissolution, the ‘Balkan question’ remains more than ever a ‘European question’.

  • The Institute's quarterly newsletter

    In this quarter's issue of the newsletter, EUISS director Álvaro de Vasconcelos, explores the increasing inter-connection of actors beyond the big powers, F. Stephen Larrabee highlights the work yet to be done by the EU in the Balkans and the Eastern neighbourhood, and Luis Peral considers the EU's responsibility within the International Criminal Court.

  • The ICJ advisory opinion on Kosovo: the beginning of a new road

    In what could be seen as a strategic move, Serbia has agreed to move the Kosovo issue from UN fora to EU fora. But the EU is handicapped in this role: five of the 27 Member States have differing opinions on Kosovo’s independence. Despite this, a normalisation of relations between Kosovo and Serbia could be nearing.

  • Is the EU capable of making Serbs and Albanians finally reconcile?

    Both Belgrade and Pristina are likely to drag their feet when negotiations over the Kosovo issue recommence. While the EU has shown that it can act as mediator, less will depend on its diplomatic capacity and more will depend on the incentives it can offer Belgrade and Pristina for their mutual concessions.

  • Serbia’s Srebrenica Declaration: a small step, but in the right direction

    Serbian President, Boris Tadic, has been making steps that suggest Serbia has finally opened up the question of war crimes. But with large parts of the media and public still not ready to approach the issue, can Serbia face up to its past?