The Analysis Of EU’s The Western Balkan Enlargement

Authors : Caner Övsan ÇAKAŞ

Pages : 46-65

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Publication Date : 2018-12-28

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :Enlargement of the European Union is one of most important development not only in European politics but also in the world politics in general. The European Union had accepted ten thirteen new new members from 2004 to 2013 and these new members were mainly consist of Eastern European and Balkan countries (only Malta and Cyprus were exceptions). In this context, the enlargement of the Union to Western Balkans is very important issue which had to be taken into consideration. In this article It is aimed to elaborate the achievements and failures of the EU enlargement strategies in the three Western Balkan countries. It will be analyzed that whether could it be accepted that there is a comprehensive enlargement strategy of EU for Western Balkan countries and why EU enlargement process was culminated in achievement in some countries such as Croatia and Slovenia, but it failed in another countries such as Serbia in the first decade of 21.century. This question will be assessed in line with the two fundamental theories of regional integration namely, rationalist institutionalism and sociological institutionalism. In the research study, it reached that sociological institutionalism provides more appropriate perspective for the purpose of explaining the different results of enlargement strategy in the Balkan countries.o
Keywords : EU Enlargement Process, Western Balkans, Rationalist Institutionalism, Sociological Institutionalism