THE EUROPEAN UNION IN THE BALKANS: ANOTHER STEP TOWARDS EUROPEAN INTEGRATION, Heinz KRAMER

Authors : Heinz KRAMER

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Publication Date : 2000-09-01

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :Since the establishment of the Stability Pact for South-eastern Europe of 10 June 1999,1 the European Union has become the linchpin for short-term peacekeeping and long-term stability in the Balkans. The Union has assumed a new political role in the region for which it was, and still is to a large extent, unprepared. Actual EU policy towards the Balkans is not only an undertaking in correcting past failures2 and stabilising a precarious present but also an attempt to develop a framework for a better future for Europe`s most crisis-ridden and violence-prone region. The considerable improvement in the EU`s engagement in the Balkans has opened a new and daring field for the Union`s common foreign and security policy. In the eyes of the European public, it is the ultimate test of the EU`s ability to conduct a common foreign and security policy of any meaning at all. However, Brussels` new Balkan policy is more than just a foreign and security policy; it is simultaneously the opening of another chapter in the process of European integration.3 In the long-term, a successful European Balkan policy will not only bring peace and prosperous stability to the region but also produce another change in the EU`s own political and institutional set-up by furthering the integration of another group of European countries into the structures of the Union.
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