Abstract
The chapter seeks to evaluate the results of EU policies towards the Western Balkan countries and related issues of their economic integration into the EU. It first recalls the most relevant features of EU policies towards the region over the past two decades and illustrates the present high level of economic integration between the Western Balkan countries and the European Union which has taken place through increasing trade, FDI, financial and banking integration. It also discusses some of the main longer-term problems of the Western Balkan countries that may hamper swifter EU-Western Balkan economic integration, including labour market problems, insufficient competitiveness, unfavorable economic structure and relatively low level of economic development. Recent changes in EU policies towards the Western Balkans are also briefly examined. It is argued that it is in the EU’s own interest to accelerate EU-Western Balkan integration through more substantial financial support and inclusion of these countries into several EU policy areas even before EU membership.
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Notes
- 1.
The ten countries are the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia that became EU Member States on 1 May 2004 (together with Cyprus and Malta), and Bulgaria and Romania that joined the EU on 1 January 2007.
- 2.
The total budget of the current IPA II programme for all enlargement countries, including Turkey, is €11.7 billion for the 7-year period, of which around €4.454 billion has been planned for Turkey and the rest for the Western Balkans (see website of the European Commission).
- 3.
SAAs with the EU were signed by Albania in June 2006, Montenegro in October 2007, Serbia in April 2008, Bosnia and Herzegovina in June 2008 and Kosovo in July 2014. Since 2001, the Kosovo provisional authorities under UNSCR 1244 have prioritised the European agenda and a permanent technical and political dialogue with Kosovo authorities, called the SAP tracking mechanism (STM), was established to provide guidance to Kosovo’s reform efforts.
- 4.
Before a country could sign an SAA, there was a preparatory phase during which progress in reforms was to be assessed at meetings of a joint EU-Balkan Consultative Task Force, after which the EU Commission was to prepare a Feasibility Report on whether a country was ready to start negotiations on the signing of an SAA; the successful completion of negotiations would eventually lead to the signing of an SAA when a Western Balkan country would become associated with the EU, after which the country could apply for the status of EU “candidate”. The final stage involves the launch of negotiations on EU accession, during which all 35 chapters of the EU’s acquis communautaire are to be opened and negotiated.
- 5.
Some fishery products, veal and wine; while trade in textile products is covered by bilateral agreements.
- 6.
Documents of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Trade and Eurostat online statistics on international trade do not include statistics on Western Balkans’ trade in services, only trade in goods.
- 7.
In UNCTAD statistics online, 2012 is the last available year of reported statistics on FDI stock, by country of origin, in the Western Balkan countries.
- 8.
The CEFTA region today is represented by seven countries: the six Western Balkan countries and Moldova, that are signatories of the CEFTA 2006 agreement on free trade.
- 9.
Note that these annual figures on FDI inflows are not comparable with the previously reported figures on FDI stock.
- 10.
This is a rough estimate, since Eurostat still does not report data on GDP per capita for Kosovo.
- 11.
Recent European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) transition indicators suggest that in most areas of economic reforms the Western Balkans have achieved substantial progress towards conditions typical of a developed market economy.
- 12.
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Uvalić, M. (2019). Economic Integration of the Western Balkans into the European Union: The Role of EU Policies. In: Džankić, J., Keil, S., Kmezić, M. (eds) The Europeanisation of the Western Balkans. New Perspectives on South-East Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91412-1_10
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