EU internal security policies in the Western Balkans: analysing the intersection between enlargement and civilian crisis management

Trauner, Florian. (2009) EU internal security policies in the Western Balkans: analysing the intersection between enlargement and civilian crisis management. In: UNSPECIFIED. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

This paper analyses the EU’s strategy and foreign policy toolbox for engaging the Western Balkan countries in achieving its goals in the area of justice and home affairs (JHA). It argues that the EU involves the Western Balkan countries in a dual-track strategy. By providing them with the prospect of future membership, the EU has initiated a pre-accession process which aims not only at strengthening cooperation in the JHA field but at gradually transforming these states into full-fledged member states that are capable of participating themselves in the European area of freedom, security and justice. EU external governance within the Stabilisation and Association Process is guided by a strategy of rule transfer based on conditionality, where network governance acts as a complement rather than a replacement for governance by conditionality. In addition, the EU has deployed ESDP police and rule of law missions in order to achieve its internal security objectives in those Western Balkan countries where the JHA-related activities of the Stabilisation and Association Process were deemed insufficient (Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo). The paper concludes by arguing that EU cooperation in justice and home affairs vis-á-vis these countries has become one of the driving forces of the EU’s overall foreign policy engagement in the region.

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