Dynamic regional political concepts and the European integration process

Petrović, Miloš (2020) Dynamic regional political concepts and the European integration process. In: Russia and Serbia in the Contemporary World : bilateral relations, challenges and opportunities. Institute of International politics and economics, Belgrade, pp. 167-184. ISBN 978-86-7067-278-9

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Abstract

This paper aims to explore the evolution of different political constructs in the context of several EU enlargement rounds. The research has shown that the deepening of the EU integration processes has resulted in different political conceptualizations of European regions. Whereas the political notion ‘Central and Eastern Europe’ included countries that were part of the enlargement rounds between 2004-2007, a new political concept – the ‘Western Balkans’ – largely grouped the countries lagging behind in the EU integration process. However, that political concept is temporary since once a country joins the EU, it is no longer politically regarded as a ‘Western Balkan’ nation, as seen on the example of Croatia. The author hypothesizes that the concept ‘Western Balkans’, which overlaps with the EU enlargement agenda, will become outdated as a political bureaucratic term at a distant point when the entire region joins the Union. At that point, the region will be subjected to fundamentally different normative, political, economic and other contexts, which will affect how the citizens, institutions and states act, how they perceive their country, and how the international community understands and treats them in regional terms. The future abandoning of the ‘Western Balkan’ political concept is analyzed through the social constructivist approach.

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