The EU and the Balkans: Shifting Meanings after the Crisis

Abstract

This article discusses to what extent meanings and discourses on 'EU membership' on the one hand and on the 'Balkans' on the other, have shifted within Western Balkan countries in the past few years as a result of financial crisis in the European Union. Focusing on Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina, the article uses Derrida's deconstruction to problematize the return of terms such as 'Balkan' and 'Balkanized', as a way to explain failures of the economic system. The article concludes that in the case of BH and to a lesser extent in Kosovo, there has been a de-mythicization of the EU.