The Strategy for the Western Balkans (also known as "A credible enlargement perspective for and enhanced EU engagement with the Western Balkans") is a policy pursued by the EU with its partners and accession candidates in the western region of the Balkan Peninsula. Announced by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in his 2017 State of the Union address, this policy brings together the objectives of the global strategy for CSDP and the enlargement policy specific to the states in this region.
History
In 1999, the European Union launched the Stabilization and Association Process (SAP) to strengthen its role in the region and provide long-term support for the reconstruction and development of countries in the wake of the wars in the former Yugoslavia. At international level, this approach was accompanied by the Stability Pact for South-Eastern Europe, supported by the EU, NATO, the OSCE, the IMF, the World Bank and other major international players. Since then, an annual EU-Balkans summit has been organized; the first was held in Zagreb in November 2000, and in 2003 the Thessaloniki European Council reaffirmed that all SAP countries were potential candidates for membership.
In 2018, this regional sub-group comprised five of the six candidate states (Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia) and Kosovo, which only has the status of a potential candidate. Each of these states has signed a Stabilization and Association Agreement with the EU to facilitate their approximation to EU standards (Copenhagen criteria and eventual acquis communautaire).
To support and reinvigorate the candidate countries' efforts to meet the accession criteria, the European Commission, through its President, adopted a strategy at the end of 2017 focusing on priorities and areas for enhanced joint cooperation. The strategy detailed by Jean-Claude Juncker in his State of the Union address in September 2017 and prepared in advance by the Commission and EEAS includes an action plan focusing on six initiatives relating to the EU's strategy in the Balkans with an increased budget allocated to pre-accession instruments and regional initiatives.
According to the President of the European Commission: "If we want more stability in our neighborhood, we must offer credible prospects to the countries of the Western Balkans"; he also added that "there will be no further accessions during the term of office of this Commission" (2014-2019). Beyond this regional policy, the EU is also committed to working alongside its member states and partners to resolve local issues such as the debate over the name of Macedonia, or the dispute over the delineation of the border between Kosovo and Serbia.
Specific features of the region
With the redefinition of borders and forced population movements that followed the inter-ethnic conflicts of the 1990s in the former Yugoslavia, the Western Balkans were sharply divided, and deep-rooted tensions remained. The Dayton Accords put an end to the war in Bosnia (1995) by separating the country into two distinct regions and creating a federal government managed by a collective tripartite presidency and supervised by an international High Representative. The agreements also provided for the intervention of a NATO intervention force (IFOR), which was replaced by the European Union's Althea force in 2004. Kosovo became independent in 2008, at the cost of a mass exodus of Albanian and Serbian populations. Here too, a NATO force was set up (KFOR), supported by an administration mission that was replaced by the European Union's civilian mission EULEX Kosovo.
Since the fall of Yugoslavia and the end of the Communist regime, economic development in the Balkans has lagged significantly behind that of other regions in Eastern Europe; for example, in 1990, Macedonia's GDP was three times lower than Slovenia's; in 2003, it was fifty times lower. This lack of development has led to an expansion of black market and illegal activities in the region.