European Integration and Transformation in the Western Balkans: Europeanization or Business as Usual?

The book investigates the scope and limitations of the transformative power of EU enlargement in the Western Balkans. The extension of EU enlargement policy to the region has generated high expectations that enlargement will regulate democratic institution-building and foster reform, much as it did in Central and Eastern Europe. However, there is very little research on whether and how unfavourable domestic conditions might mitigate the transformative power of the EU. This volume investigates the role of domestic factors, identifying ‘stateness’ as the missing link between the assumed transformative power of the EU and the actual capacity to adopt EU rules across the region. Including chapters on Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo, and Bosnia-Herzegovina, leading scholars in the field offer up-to-date comparative analysis of key areas of institutional and policy reform; including state bureaucracy, rule of law, electoral management, environmental governance, cooperation with the International Court of Justice, economic liberalization and foreign policy. Looking to the future and the implications for policy change, European Integration and Transformation in the Western Balkans provides a new theoretical and empirical focus on this little understood area. The book will be of interest to scholars and students of EU politics, comparative democratisation, post-communist transitions and Balkan area studies.

Table of Contents:
Part I: Europeanization Travels to the Western Balkans 1. Europeanization Travels to the Western Balkans: Enlargement Strategy, Domestic Obstacles and Diverging Reforms Arolda Elbasani 2. The Stabilisation and Association Process: A Framework for European Union Enlargement? David Phinnemore Part II: Europeanization in Consolidated States 3. The Trials and Triumphs of Europeanization in Croatia: The Unbearable Weight of Structure and State-Building? Mieczysław P. Boduszyński 4. EU Political Conditionality towards Serbia: Membership Prospects vs. Domestic Constraints Jelena Stojanović 5. EU Conditionality as a Transforming Power in Macedonia: Evidence from Electoral Management Jessica Giandomenico 6. EU Administrative Conditionality and Domestic Obstacles: Slow, Hesitant and Partial Reform in Post-Communist Albania Arolda Elbasani 7. Where does the European Union Make a Difference? Rule of Law Development in the Western Balkans and Beyond Martin Mendelski Part III: Europeanization in Contested States 8. State-building Without Recognition: A Critical Retrospective of the European Union’s Strategy in Kosovo (1999-2010) Dimitris Papadimitriou and Petar Petrov 9. Building Environmental Governance in Potential Candidate Countries: Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Processes in Bosnia-Herzegovina Adam Fagan 10. Secessionism, Irredentism and EU Enlargement to the Western Balkans - Squaring the Circle? Rafael Biermann Conclusions 11. When Europeanization Hits Limited Statehood. The Western Balkans as a Test Case for the Transformative Power of Europe Tanja Börzel