THE EUROPEAN UNION IN THE BALKANS: ANOTHER STEP TOWARDS EUROPEAN INTEGRATION, Heinz KRAMER

Year 2000, Volume: 5 Issue: 3, 0 - 0, 01.09.2000

Heinz Kramer

Abstract

Since the establishment of the Stability Pact for South-eastern Europe of 10 June 1999,1 the European Union has become the linchpin for short-term peacekeeping and long-term stability in the Balkans. The Union has assumed a new political role in the region for which it was, and still is to a large extent, unprepared. Actual EU policy towards the Balkans is not only an undertaking in correcting past failures2 and stabilising a precarious present but also an attempt to develop a framework for a better future for Europe's most crisis-ridden and violence-prone region. The considerable improvement in the EU's engagement in the Balkans has opened a new and daring field for the Union's common foreign and security policy. In the eyes of the European public, it is the ultimate test of the EU's ability to conduct a common foreign and security policy of any meaning at all. However, Brussels' new Balkan policy is more than just a foreign and security policy; it is simultaneously the opening of another chapter in the process of European integration.3 In the long-term, a successful European Balkan policy will not only bring peace and prosperous stability to the region but also produce another change in the EU's own political and institutional set-up by furthering the integration of another group of European countries into the structures of the Union.

References

• 1 For the text of the Stability Pact and further information about its functioning, see the Web-site of the Special Co-ordinator for the Stability Pact (SCSP): http://www.stabilitypact.org
• 2 For the EU's early and futile attempts at stabilising the Balkan region, see Heinz Kramer, 'Südosteuropa - von der Europäischen Union vergessen?', in Heinz-Jürgen Axt (ed.), Beiträge zur Stabilisierung Südosteuropas aus deutscher und griechischer Sicht, München: Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft, 1995, pp. 61-68.
• 3 See Johannes Varwick, 'The Kosovo Crisis and the European Union: the Stability Pact and its Consequences for EU Enlargement', at http://www.dgap.org/texte/kosovo.htm, to be published in Kurt R. Spillmann and Joachim Krause (eds.), Kosovo: Lessons Learned for International Cooperative Security, Bern, etc.: Peter Lang, 2000, pp. 159-178.
• 4 For details of the problematic situation in these countries, see Marie-Janine Calic, Sicherheitsrisiken und Konfliktpotentiale in Südosteuropa, Ebenhausen: Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, May 2000 (SWP-AP 3131).
• 5 See Susan L. Woodward, 'Kosovo and the Region: Consequences of the Waiting Game', International Spectator (Rome), Vol. 35, No. 1, January-March 2000, pp. 35-48.
• 6 See Espen Barth Eide, 'The Internal Security Challenge in Kosovo', International Spectator (Rome), Vol. 35, No. 1, January-March 2000, pp. 49-63.
• 7 For the possibilities and temptations of looking to the creation of a 'Greater Albania', see Woodward, 'Kosovo and the Region', op. cit., pp. 38-42.
• 8 See the analysis of Geoffrey Edwards, 'The Potential and Limits of the CFSP. The Yugoslav Example' in Elfriede Regelsberger, et al. (eds.), Foreign Policy of the European Union, Boulder, Colorado: Rienner, 1997, pp. 173-195.
• 9 For details see 'The Regional Approach, as defined in 1996' (http://europa.eu.int/comm/external_relations/see/docs/reg_approach_96.htm).
• 11 'The Stabilisation and Association Process for South-Eastern Europe', (http://europa.eu.int/comm/external_relations/see/sap/index.htm) and European Parliament, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy, Report on the Communication from the Commission on the Stabilisation and Association process for Countries of South-Eastern Europe, rapporteur: Joost Lagendijk, Brussels, 22 March 2000 (Doc. A5-0069/2000 fin.).
• 12 'Joint Report to the Helsinki Council on EU Action in Support of the Stability Pact and South-Eastern Europe', presented to the Helsinki European Council, 10-11 December 1999 by the Finnish Presidency and the European Commission, in CEPS (ed.), Europa South-East Monitor, Issue 6, Brussels, December 1999 (http://www.ceps.be/Pubs/SEEMonitor/Monitor6.htm).
• 14 This figure is mentioned in 'Report on Western Balkans Presented to the Lisbon European Council by the Secretary General/High Representative together with the Commission' in CEPS (ed.), Europa South-East Monitor, Issue 9, Brussels, March 2000.
• 15 Cf. European Parliament, Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy, 'Report on the Commission Recommendation for a Council Decision Authorising the Commission to Negotiate a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, rapporteur: Johannes Swoboda, Brussels, 3 February 2000, (Doc. A5-0031/2000 fin.) and European Commission, 'Report on the Feasibility of Negotiating a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with Albania', Brussels, 24 November 1999, COM 599 final (1999), (http://europa.eu.int/comm/external_relations/see/docs/com_599_final.htm).
• 16 For details see EU Directorate General for External Relations, 'Kosovo - One Year on - The European Contribution', Brussels, 24 March 2000. (http://europa.eu.int/comm/external_relations/see/kosovo/1_year_on.htm).
• 17 For a rare admission of EU inefficiency by the Union's authorities see the relevant passages in 'Report on Western Balkans presented to the Lisbon European Council'.
• 18 Andreas Wittkowsky, Stability Through Integration? South-eastern Europe as a Challenge for the European Union, Bonn: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, 2000 (Eurokolleg No. 43).
• 19 Reinhard Stuth, 'Stabilität in Sicht? Fragen an die europäische Balkanpolitik' in KAS-Auslandsinformationen, Vol. 16 (2000), No. 4, pp. 4-25.