EU conditionality in the Western Balkans.

This volume examines how the European Union and its policy of conditionality has shaped the post-conflict reconstruction of the Western Balkans. From state-building to democratisation and environmental policies, this book explores whether and in what ways the EU has been successful in consolidating states and democracy in the Balkans.

In addition to requiring countries to be ready join the European Union, the EU has also set new conditions in an effort to become the prime international organization involved in stabilizing the Western Balkans after the wars of the 1990s. Its record has been mixed: the conditions of the EU have often been haphazard and were frequently not followed through. In addition, enlargement towards the Western Balkans has been slow and marred by open questions over the stability of some countries in the region.

This volume assesses through detailed studies why the EU has struggled to transform the societies through conditionality and whether the offer of EU membership is enough to build stable democracies.

This book was published as a special issue of Europe-Asia Studies.

Contents:

1. Introduction
2. Building Impossible States? State-Building Strategies and EU Membership in the Western Balkans
3. Incentives for Democratisation? Effects of EU Conditionality on Democracy in Bosnia & Hercegovina
4. Justice Imposed: How Policies of Conditionality Effect Transitional Justice in the Former Yugoslavia
5. Speaking European: Conditionality, Public Attitudes and Pro-European Party Rhetoric in the Western Balkans
6. EU Conditionality and Governance in Bosnia & Hercegovina: Environmental Regulation of the Trans-European Road Network
7. From Dayton to Brussels: The Impact of EU and NATO Conditionality on State Building in Bosnia & Hercegovina
8. The Constraints on European Institutions’ Conditionality in the Western Balkans