Bilateral disputes, of which there are many in the Western Balkans, continue to cast a dark shadow over the countries of the region. Individual EU Member States involved in some of these disputes have used them to raise issues that have nothing to do with the EU accession criteria, effectively blocking the EU’s enlargement agenda. Thus, the EU’s failure to put forward an overall strategy to address these disputes has undermined the overall credibility of the EU’s enlargement policy towards the region.
If the EU is committed to bringing the Western Balkan countries into the Union and promoting long-term stability and reconciliation in the region, it will need a more determined and proactive strategy in bringing these disputes to a peaceful resolution. Issues that are not part of the accession criteria – such as those relating to history and identity – should be dealt with separately from the accession process itself.
By drawing on its own experience in overcoming the legacy of the past and building a process based on reconciliation and the rule of law, the EU can show that no matter how sensitive or complex the issues dividing countries, solutions that are not imposed but based on mutual trust and respect can be found.
This paper is published as a part of the ‘Support for further development of the model of the Western Balkans staged accession to the European Union’, a collaboration between CEPS and the European Policy Centre (CEP), based in Belgrade.
