EU enlargement

What will the Western Balkans look like in 2025? This Chaillot Paper presents three contrasting scenarios for the horizon of 2025 – best-case, medium-case, and worst-case, with each scenario taking account of the impact of underlying megatrends.

During the seven years of the EU-facilitated dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, known as the Brussels Dialogue, relations between the two sides have oscillated between normalisation and a state of strained peace and conflict prevention. What are the key obstacles to more...

Prepared by the EUISS with the support and cooperation of the European Fund for the Balkans (EFB) – examines how the Western Balkans has emerged once again as a potentially volatile geopolitical arena, and analyses the drivers underpinning both fragility and resilience in the...

This Brief shows that, in the case of the Western Balkans, improving resilience requires a careful analysis of how the enlargement process can be adapted and improved in order to maintain its transformative power, as well as ensure that reforms are both sustainable and...

In Europe the collapse of the communist system has given rise to great aspirations to democracy and civil rights. At the same time, new tensions are accompanying this move to democracy, whether in connection with the right to self-determination, minority rights, or the...

Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the three Baltic states - Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia - have made significant strides in consolidating their independence, putting themselves not only on the geographical map of Europe, but also on the mental map of Western...

Regional cooperation in the Western Balkans is an issue that has been much discussed. The countries of the region are today much more closely connected through various cooperation schemes than they were seven years ago. This is a success that should not be underestimated. Today...

The political conditions for opening the path towards EU integration for the countries of the Western Balkans include both full cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and regional reconciliation. This paper examines the extent to which this...

Today, more than fifteen years after the end of the wars of Yugoslavia’s dissolution, the ‘Balkan question’ remains more than ever a ‘European question’.

Two decades after the Dayton Peace Agreement, Bosnian politics remains paralysed. What is Europe doing to assist Bosnia and Herzegovina on its path to EU membership? And what are the major obstacles facing the divided country?