EU Global Strategy Expert Opinion No.41 – Gerald Knaus

For more than a decade the answer to the question of how the EU can influence developments in its most immediate neighbourhood – and in particular in the Balkans and Turkey – seemed so obvious that there was no need to put it at the forefront of any discussion of Global Strategy: stability and influence was guaranteed through a credible policy of European enlargement.

This vision remains present today in all EU documents and speeches. It underlies EU mediation between Kosovo and Serbia, underpins the way in which the EU approaches Turkey, and forms the background for EU efforts to calm tensions in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. But is this policy still credible in light of developments in the region and within the EU?