EU Enlargement Policy Meets Eastern Partnership: A Cause for Concern?

Petrović, Miloš and Kovačević, Maja (2023) EU Enlargement Policy Meets Eastern Partnership: A Cause for Concern? In: Southeastern Europe and the European Union – Legal Developments. SEE | EU Cluster of Excellence in European and International Law, 7 . Verlag Alma Mater, Saarbrücken, pp. 61-74. ISBN 978-3-946851-72-1

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Abstract

The authors analyze a growing tendency of the EU institutions to treat the membership candidates and eastern partners through similar political, legal-bureaucratic, and other means rather than separating them and ar- gue that such “clustering” is primarily damaging to the Western Balkans (WB). The authors observe two strategic processes: the political marginali- zation of the enlargement domain, combined with the increasing geopolit- ical relevance of the eastern neighborhood, which might further sideline the WB for two reasons. Firstly, the geopolitical rivalry with Russia in the eastern neighborhood diverts EU attention to that region. Secondly, as a politically and economically associated region, WB is heavily dependent on the EU, which is unlikely to change considering its small size and enclaved territorial position within the EU, despite the rising Euroscepticism on both sides. The authors argue that geopolitical urgency to engage in the eastern neighborhood is likely to further divert attention from the growingly periph- eral WB, whose membership perspective appears to be increasingly vague and uncertain.

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