The Challenges of European Union Integration: The Parallel between Human Rights and Corruption Perceptions

Abstract

With the concepts of rule of law, democracy and respect for human rights representing the most prominent values upon which the European Union is established, the EU accession process expectedly supplicates candidate countries to ameliorate the efficiency of their legal institutions. As a general rule, such fundamentals are habitually correlated with other equally relevant criteria concerning the EU accession process. Given that the Western Balkans are not ordinarily regarded as an exemplary model in terms of practically demonstrating the rule of law and economic well-being, this research paper analyzes the linear relationship between human rights and rule of law manifestations and corruption perspectives in some EU candidate countries as a potential mechanism for satisfying EU accession fundamentals. For that matter, a simple linear regression analysis was conducted in order to determine whether and how such correlation would benefit policymakers in some current EU candidate countries toward their paths to European integration.