The United Arab Emirates has become a major investor in the Western Balkans. With enlargement back on the agenda, the EU must ensure that foreign capital meets rather than undermines its governance standards.
The Western Balkans have demonstrated resilience to the security risks created by Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. But the momentum for EU enlargement of the past two years is already starting to fade as both pull and push factors are weakening and a new stasis is visible on the horizon.
Critical raw materials and rare earths are of great economic importance for the European Union. This publication reflects the raw materials situation in four neighboring European countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Georgia, and Armenia.
The EP 2024 elections could either invigorate the EU enlargement process or introduce new challenges, making it imperative to explore the possible impacts and strategic responses for the Western Balkans in this evolving context.
The 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections in North Macedonia occurred amidst increased Euroscepticism due to unmet high expectations for progress towards EU membership and failed promises to deliver justice and the rule of law in the country.
In his book, author Vedran Horvat takes a personal journey through the last two decades of politics in the Western Balkans and sheds light on the potential of green politics under extremely difficult conditions.
The core of the EU’s relationship with the WB lies in the promise of full accession with equal rights and responsibilities. As the EU enters a period of reflection and potential reform, it must reintroduce clarity, determination, and honesty into its interaction with WB6.
The analytical commentaries of this issue discuss the prospects for a just green transition in the Western Balkan countries and their particular contexts of structural injustices in the societies and transition legacies. The fundamental economic and technological changes for a decarbonisation of the widely coal dependent economies in the region need to be accompanied not only by another attitude to nature and biodiversity but also by a new set of social relationships and innovations in governance and civic participation.
On the EU’s periphery, Serbia has deployed enough biometric surveillance technology from China’s Huawei for law enforcement and “Safe City” solutions to cover practically all of Belgrade’s public spaces. Public pressure has raised the bar for turning on the technology, but the alarming project illustrates the need for transparent regulation of such systems everywhere, to ensure the protection of fundamental human rights.
The “Strategy Group for a political, societal and economic European integration of the
Western Balkans Six” is a group of legal, historical and political researches from all WB6
countries organized by Heinrich Böll Stiftung’s Belgrade, Sarajevo and Berlin offices.
Its aim is to credibly advocate for a more effective European integration of the Balkans
in European as well as Balkan capitals.
This paper presents case studies and examples of the work of political foundations and underlines the benefits of establishing dialogue between civil society and party political actors. On this basis, it proposes some recommendations for EU policy-makers, party political actors and civil society in the region.
