A Legal Assessment of EU Integration in the Western Balkans

Evaluates how effectively the current legal frameworks support EU integration and intra-regional integration in the Western Balkans.

This book offers a comprehensive and forward-looking assessment of the Western Balkans’ integration into the European Union, analysing the process through three interlinked perspectives: EU frameworks, domestic reforms, and intra-regional cooperation.

It first examines the legal architecture that structures accession, including the long-standing Stabilisation and Association Agreements, the EU’s revised enlargement methodology, and the emerging Growth Plan for the Western Balkans, which strengthens conditionality by linking financial support to reform performance. Together, these instruments reveal both the possibilities and the persistent limitations of the EU’s approach to preparing candidate states for membership.

The second part turns to the Western Balkan countries themselves, assessing the extent and effectiveness of reforms - most notably in the rule of law, now central to the “Fundamentals” cluster of the new methodology. The book analyses how far EU driven, top-down reforms align with domestic constitutional and legal contexts and identifies the structural and political obstacles that may hinder the impact of EU conditionality. It also explores the scope for more locally grounded, bottom-up reform initiatives.

A third angle considers intra-regional integration efforts, such as CEFTA, the regional common market, the Berlin Process, the Open Balkan Initiative and cooperation through the Regional Cooperation Council. By evaluating their institutional design, legal commitments and enforcement mechanisms, the book compares these initiatives with the EU integration pathway and assesses their potential role as stepping-stones to accession.

Grounded in rigorous legal analysis and informed by political context, this book is essential reading for scholars of EU enlargement, comparative regional integration, and postgraduate students engaging with the future of Europe’s neighbourhood.