The Europeanisation of the Western Balkans

EU justice and home affairs in Croatia and Macedonia

By (author) Florian Trauner

Publication date:

01 June 2011

Length of book:

224 pages

Publisher

Manchester University Press

Dimensions:

234x156mm

ISBN-13: 9780719083457

This book deals with the scope and nature of the EU’s external influence over South-Eastern Europe in the present enlargement. By elaborating on the Europeanisation of the Western Balkans in a systematic, theory-oriented and comparative way, the book provides rich insight into the dynamics of the current enlargement and offers a comprehensive analysis of the EU’s avenues of external leverage in the field of justice and home affairs, a key sector of cooperation in the EU-Western Balkans relations.

The book is an important contribution towards a better understanding of how the EU’s use of pre-accession conditionality has changed since the Eastern enlargement. It will be of interest to decision-makers, officials and academics concerned with adaptation and transformation processes in South-Eastern Europe and the possibilities and limitations of the EU’s influence in the outside world.

Part 1- The analytical framework
1 Introduction and research interest
1.1. How strong is the EU’s leverage in South-Eastern Europe?
1.2. The Europeanisation of the Western Balkans
1.3. The analytical framework
Part 2- EU policies and strategies for South-Eastern Europe
2 EU policies for the Balkan borders
2.1. The Schengen acquis
2.2. The Schengen system as part of the accession criteria for candidate
countries
2.3. The EU’s border security policies for the Western Balkans
3 The Europeanisation strstegies for the Western Balkans
3.1. The Stabilisation and Association Process (SAP): analysing the JHA
dimension
3.2. The Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe
3.3. The Ohrid Border Process: streamlining international efforts
Part 3- The receiving end- governance mode and effectiveness
4. Rule adoption in Croatia
4.1. The procedural and institutional context
4.2. EU border security policies: an evaluation of their impact in Croatia
4.3. Explaining Croatia’s process of adjusting to the EU
5 Rule adoption in Macedonia
5.1. The procedural and institutional context
5.2. EU border security policies: an evaluation of their impact in
Macedonia
5.3. Explaining Macedonia’s process of adjusting to the EU
6. Cross country discussion and outlook
6.1. Assessing the EU’s pre-accession framework
6.2. Developing policy-related conditionality: the role of the EU’s visa
regime
6.3. Outlook: the EU’s visa policy in the European Neighbourhood Policy
(ENP)
Part 4- Conclusions
7. Conclusions
References

‘The book is characterized by impressive depth of analysis, a convincing, functional structure, and clarity of presentation and argumentation. Moreover, it calls on future studies to envisage policy conditionality for other sectors of integration as well, though it remains to be seen whether the success of visa liberalization can be repeated. Overall, it has been an extremely enjoyable experience reading Florian Trauner’s The Europeanisation of the Western Balkans, and I am thankful for the opportunity to discuss this valuable piece of work.’
Marko Kmezic, University of Graz, Austria, Southeastern Europe 42 (2018)