WESTERN BALKANS AND EU ENLARGEMENT - NEW SECURITY TRENDS

Abstract

The subject of this thesis is the current situation in the process of the western Balkan countries joining the European Union, an undertaking made more complicated by the recent conflict in the Ukraine. Comparative analysis, content analysis, inductive and deductive techniques and case studies are among the methods used in the approach to this topic. Multi-criteria analysis has been conducted on the changed decade-long practice of the process of admission of candidate countries to the EU, the granting of candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova by an accelerated procedure and the relation of these changing conditions to the countries of the Western Balkans. In the matrix of changed conditions for privileged countries, the emergence of new security tendencies is becoming evident. The position of the Western Balkan coun- tries is analyzed in relation to these new developments, with the emphasis on almost impossible mission of fulfilling the conditions that are set before them. The paper is additionally interspersed with the presentation of various researches that have obtained results about this security problem. At the end, concluding thoughts, suggestions, recommendations, as well as a forecast of the development of the problem in the future are given. The goal of this scientific paper is to point out the numerous obstacles that the countries of the Western Balkans need to overcome in the accession process, as well as to bring to light that the stated intention of joining and candidate status often result in additional pressures and constantly emerging new conditions given by the EU, which for the countries of the Western Balkans produce a path without a certain end.