CIAO DATE: 12/2012
March 2012
Kolleg-Forschergruppe "The Transformative Power of Europe"
Given the current criticism of EU foreign policy after the Lisbon Treaty, the EU urgently needs success in the Western Balkan’s approximation to the EU in order to reassert its own foreign policy standing. After the 2004 enlargement, the EU has been widely advocating its accession policy as its most successful foreign policy instrument. With the Western Balkan countries’ ambitions for and great expectations in a future EU membership, the confirmation of the “European perspective” at Thessaloniki 2003, should have put them on a stable and progressive path towards European Union membership.
Resource link: A wake-up call from enlargement fatigue: The cases of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia [PDF] - 406K