Paper Titles & Abstracts

In its Common Foreign and Security Policy and European Security and Defence Policy the EU has always set key priorities to its external action in the neighbourhood region of the Western Balkans. Although neofunctionalism suggests otherwise, so far the current economic crisis in the EU has not affected the EU's foreign policy towards the Balkans. Nor has the EU lost its appeal as a political entity worth to be joined by the Western Balkans, as recent developments in the relations between the EU and Croatia/Serbia show respectively. Furthermore, progress towards candidate status has been achieved by Albania and High Level Dialogues on the accession process has started with BiH and Macedonia. Accession negotiations were opened also with Montenegro in June 2012, and, with regard to Kosovo, the EU is stepping forward in a leadership role among all the international organizations involved. The role of the EU in the Balkans is that of a unchallenged international actor that reconciles the difficult task of nation-state building and regional integration into the EU. The EU is perceived as a transformative power capable to accompany the creation of future Member States alongside its concerted regional approach to the EU enlargement. The shared European roof should hereby help defuse contentious territorial and institutional issues in parallel to the EU accession process. But how come that 'Euro-realism' is not a factor taken into account by either sides? In light of the current economic and financial crisis, it has to be questioned whether the EU will have the capacity to grant accession to even more weak states, and, additionally, it is also questionable if the selective regional approach of the EU will not cause more separatist effects rather than integrative ones in the whole region. A scenario of such consequences will have to be considered.