Support for EU Membership in Western Balkans: What Is Expected?

This paper addresses the situation with the EU accession progress and membership from the perspective of five Western Balkans candidate countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia). It examines the slow pace of EU enlargement to the Western Balkans and the absence of the EU’s transformative influence on the political and economic structures of Western Balkan countries. The paper explains recent geopolitical shifts that led to the revitalisation and acceleration of EU enlargement into the Western Balkans. It presents a gradual integration approach envisaged to establish a concrete link between conducting structural reforms and gradual EU integration. This paper examines institutional obstacles and political challenges of the future accession process and analyses limitations of gradual integration into the EU single market.