The Western Balkans’ Bumpy Road to the EU

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has given EU enlargement new impetus, but obstacles to the Western Balkan countries’ integration persist.
Dimitar Bechev, senior fellow at Carnegie Europe, and Oana Popescu-Zamfir, director of the Bucharest-based think tank GlobalFocus Center, discuss the domestic dynamics in the region and how Brussels can encourage democratic reform.
[00:00:00] Intro, [00:01:41] Where the Western Balkans Stand on the Road to the EU, [00:11:20] Obstacles to EU Enlargement, [00:18:35] Prospects for Western Balkan Countries’ EU Accession.
Dimitar Bechev, January 11, 2024, “Serbia’s Authoritarian (Re)turn (carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/91372),” Carnegie Europe.
Dimitar Bechev, December 5, 2023, “There Are No Quick Fixes for EU Enlargement (carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/91372),” Carnegie Europe.
Dimitar Bechev, September 28, 2023, “The EU Cannot Give Up on Serbia and Kosovo (carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/90656),” Carnegie Europe.
Dimitar Bechev, June 20, 2022, “What Has Stopped EU Enlargement in the Western Balkans? (carnegieeurope.eu/2022/06/20/what-has-stopped-…),” Carnegie Europe.
Oana Popescu-Zamfir, Nikola Dimitrov, et al., June 2, 2023, “It’s a Package Deal! Reforming and Enlarging the European Union in a Contested World (iwm.at/blog/its-a-package-deal-reforming-and-e…),” Institute for Human Sciences.
Oana Popescu-Zamfir, Rosa Balfour, et al., June 22, 2022, “What is to be done? The war, the Western Balkans and the EU (iwm.at/blog/what-is-to-be-done-the-war-the-wes…),” Institute for Human Sciences.
Oana Popescu-Zamfir and Zoran Nechev, May 3, 2022, “Time to Recognize Ukraine as European and Shake Up the EU Enlargement Process (dgap.org/en/research/publications/time-recogni…),” DGAP.