Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Balkan 7th International Conference on Social Sciences, Skopje, Makedonya, 3 - 05 Şubat 2023
At
the 2003 Thessaloniki Summit, the European Union (EU) launched the candidacy
process for Western Balkan countries. The EU has tried to play a constructive
(normative and transformative) role in the region's ongoing post-communist and
post-conflict transition processes through an external incentive model and
membership incentives. Despite the 20-year period, there have been insufficient
and unconvincing changes and transformations in the region's political,
economic, and acquis communautaire criteria for the candidate (Albania,
Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia) and potential candidate (Bosnia and
Herzegovina, and Kosovo) countries. In other words, the EU's enlargement policy
appears to be failing in the Western Balkans. This study examines alternative
causal explanations for this failure based on the following internal and
external factors. Internal reasons include i) the mode of transition, ii) the
emergence of neo-conservatism, and iii) populist leadership in the region over
the last decade. External considerations include i) manoeuvring encouraged by
alternative powers such as Russia, China, and Turkey, ii) the EU's increasing
and changing priorities due to the Euro, Brexit, migration, and Ukraine crises,
and iii) the evolution of the balance between long-term values vs. short-term
interests (stabilitocracy). It is argued that both regional and global crises
provide a favourable environment for the region’s illiberal trend. This
negative structure can be degraded to the extent that the EU enhances its
capability to manage crises and maintains its internal integrity and stability.