O'Brennan, John
(2014)
‘On the Slow Train to Nowhere?’ The
European Union, ‘Enlargement Fatigue’ and
the Western Balkans.
European Foreign Affairs Review, 19 (2).
pp. 221-242.
ISSN 1384-6299
Abstract
The EU is seeking to repeat the success of its eastern enlargement in the Western Balkans.The
accession of Croatia on 1 July 2013 provides a template for other Western Balkan states to
emulate as they seek to transpose and implement the EU acquis communautaire and advance
their membership prospects. But the EU’s engagement with the Western Balkans is proving
uneven and unsatisfactory: the enlargement process is now on ‘life support’ and ‘flat lining’ along
a trajectory of ‘frozen negotiating chapters’ and mutual mistrust toward (despite the promise
made at Thessaloniki a decade ago) an increasingly uncertain destination.The main reason for
this is ‘enlargement fatigue’ amongst the Member States of the European Union.This article
explores the underlying causes of this phenomenon and how it is impacting on the EU’s
relationship with the Western Balkans. It demonstrates that there is a symbiotic link between
enlargement fatigue on the EU side of the relationship and the deficit of implementation on the
candidate state side.The extended economic crisis which has so damaged EU solidarity has also
had a knock-on impact on enlargement: the previously successful ‘external incentives model’ has
run aground on the rocks of growing mistrust and pervasive uncertainty about the endpoint of
the process.
| Item Type: |
Article
|
| Keywords: |
European Union; Enlargement Fatigue;
Western Balkans; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology |
| Item ID: |
7960 |
| Depositing User: |
John O'Brennan
|
| Date Deposited: |
22 Feb 2017 17:20 |
| Journal or Publication Title: |
European Foreign Affairs Review |
| Publisher: |
Kluwer Law International BV |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
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