The Europeanisation of the Western Balkans - EU justice and home affairs in Croatia and Macedonia

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. With this policy, the EU is particularly interested in ensuring a strong lever, since the Western Balkans region constitutes a prime source of security concerns for the EU. However, a certain enlargement fatigue, the discussions on the EU’s integration capacities and several other factors contribute to the fact that it is unclear when or even whether these aspiring candidates will actually make it into the EU. In view of this uncertainty, how strong is the EU’s leverage in the Western Balkans? 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 and which factors drive the Western Balkan states in their process of adjustment to the EU. 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