Rule of Law in the Western Balkans: (Additional) Reforms as Obstacles to European Union Enlargement?

The rule of law is considered as the “the backbone of any modern constitutional democracy” (Blokker et al. 2021, 24). The rule of law has a central role in the EU enlargement process as it is embedded into two vital categories of reforms. This research focuses on the historically unstable Western Balkans and the potential EU enlargement in the region. This paper specifically studies Albania, Montenegro and Serbia to understand their rule of law-related progress of reforms implementation. This paper asks the question of: Why has it been challenging for Western Balkan countries to fulfill the enlargement requirements focused on the rule of law? The extensive theorization of the rule of law and the notion of EU enlargement in combination with the study of important policy documents, yields vital results. The extraction of important information through a Qualitative Content Analysis exposes the cause behind the challenging process of ultimately fulfilling the rule of law-related...Show moreThe rule of law is considered as the “the backbone of any modern constitutional democracy” (Blokker et al. 2021, 24). The rule of law has a central role in the EU enlargement process as it is embedded into two vital categories of reforms. This research focuses on the historically unstable Western Balkans and the potential EU enlargement in the region. This paper specifically studies Albania, Montenegro and Serbia to understand their rule of law-related progress of reforms implementation. This paper asks the question of: Why has it been challenging for Western Balkan countries to fulfill the enlargement requirements focused on the rule of law? The extensive theorization of the rule of law and the notion of EU enlargement in combination with the study of important policy documents, yields vital results. The extraction of important information through a Qualitative Content Analysis exposes the cause behind the challenging process of ultimately fulfilling the rule of law-related requirements for EU membership. The extensive attentiveness of the EU towards the rule of law through the continuous request for further reforms has made it difficult for Western Balkans countries to successfully satisfy their membership conditions.Show less

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Rule of Law in the Western Balkans: (Additional) Reforms as Obstacles to European Union Enlargement?