Suchergebnisse

"This book makes a significant contribution to our understanding of new modes of governance in the Western Balkans. It provides an empirically-grounded, comparative perspective on the impact of EU accession on state and non-state actors that is meticulous, detailed, and truly 'bottom-up'. It will rapidly become a key reference for scholars interested in the region, the impact of Europeanisation, and the ubiquitous institutions of 'civil society'."--Adam Fagan, Queen Mary University of London, UK "A comprehensive and insightful study into the growth, empowerment and limitations of civil society in the Western Balkans region that brings a timely and much needed shift away from a Eurocentric approach." - Antoaneta Dimitrova, Leiden University, The Netherlands "This excellent book makes a well-researched, timely contribution to the literature on the European Union's impact on the rule of law in EU candidate countries. Through in-depth original research, it demonstrates convincingly the scope and limits of civil society empowerment during the EU accession process." - Ulrich Sedelmeier, London School of Economics, UK This book examines civil society empowerment during the EU enlargement process. Building on extensive fieldwork, it compares mobilisation around rule of law issues in Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia. Moving beyond the traditional focus on the top-down impact of EU support, it demonstrates NGOs' agency and analyses their shifting strategies throughout the membership negotiations. Its approach and findings will appeal to scholars and advanced students of EU integration, social movements, and the politics of South East Europe. Natasha Wunsch is Postdoctoral Researcher in the European Politics Group at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, and Associate Fellow with the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). Her research has appeared, among others, in the Journal of European Public Policy, Acta Politica, and East European Politics.

AbstractStrengthening civil society as a domestic safeguard against the backsliding of reforms is a cornerstone of the EU enlargement process. Support provided by the EU, however, was shown to have had limited effects in triggering civil society empowerment in candidate countries. Adopting a novel perspective, this article demonstrates that the diffusion of mobilization formats, via transnational learning between activists from different enlargement rounds, facilitated the empowerment of non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) in countries joining later. Drawing on comparative evidence from Serbia and Montenegro, it shows how such transfers of external models enabled NGOs to feed into the ongoing membership talks. Their influence over substantive outcomes, however, was limited by a lack of domestic responsiveness, while funding availability constrained the operation of the transferred formats. These findings shed light on an overlooked dimension of learning in the context of Europeanization and feed into the debate on civil society empowerment in enlargement countries.

France's hesitant stance on EU enlargement towards the Balkans is illustrative of a broader ambivalence among both French elites and citizens towards the European project. Despite principled support for the Balkans' EU membership, achieving this step is no strategic priority for France. The official approach emphasizes strict conditionality and a rigorous monitoring of reform progress in aspirant countries. A hostile public opinion and superficial media coverage further strengthen the country's reluctance to admit new, possibly unprepared candidates into the Union. Analysing the historical evolution of the French position on EU enlargement as well as its current political, institutional and societal expressions, this article construes France's disinvestment from the Balkans' EU perspective as the result of failed expectations and a growing disillusionment with the EU's international role and its political future more broadly.

Wir müssen den Westbalkan bei der Bewältigung des Flüchtlingsandrangs unterstützen und zugleich die Lebensbedingungen für die Menschen vor Ort so weit verbessern, dass sie nicht ausreisen wollen. Beide Ziele lassen sich nur durch deutlich höhere Finanzhilfen sowie eine Wiederbelebung der Beitrittsperspektive verwirklichen. (IP)

"Wir müssen den Westbalkan bei der Bewältigung des Flüchtlingsandrangs unterstützen und zugleich die Lebensbedingungen für die Menschen vor Ort so weit verbessern, dass sie nicht ausreisen wollen. Beide Ziele lassen sich nur durch deutlich höhere Finanzhilfen sowie eine Wiederbelebung der Beitrittsperspektive verwirklichen." (Autorenreferat)

The EU accession process brings a profound transformation the political opportunity structure in candidate countries, creating new possibilities for previously marginalised actors. Studying the differential empowerment of NGOs during and after Croatian membership negotiations, this paper makes two related claims: first, differential empowerment depends crucially on domestic actors' awareness for and ability to use new opportunities to their advantage. Second, an overreliance on EU leverage poses important temporal and substantive limits on NGO empowerment and leads to a rapid decline of their relevance in the post-accession phase. The findings suggest that a more sustainable shift in the domestic power balance would require both the EU and domestic civil society actors to place more emphasis on fostering improved practices of civil society inclusion in domestic policy-making settings throughout the accession process.