Countries of Western Balkans and the European Union

Radaković Milovan (Ph.D., Research Associate, Institute of international Politics and Economics, Belgrade), mradakovic@diplomacy.bg.ac.rs

Brussels very carefully carries out the idea of accession of the Western Balkans to the EU. The reasons for this approach are two-fold. The first lies in the fact that the Western Balkans was involved in war conflicts in the last decade of the twentieth century, the largest since the Second World War. The second fact is that the U.S. and Russia are largely politically present in the Balkans. Conflicts in the Balkans were solved by NATO arbitration, and Russian presence in the Balkans is strongly felt, especially via large energy ventures. All this has undeniable effect on the efforts of the countries of Western Balkan to convince the European partners of their European orientation.

Keywords: EU, Western Balkans, Membership, Strategy, USA, Russia