Opening Of Accession Negotiations Research Articles

Democratic Evolution in Albania in the Aftermath of Candidate Country Status

The integration process in the European Union, being the major national goal, is the political action that leads the agenda of every Albanian government since 1992 up today. Being aware on the importance of integration process as the most efficient way towards the path of fast democratization, governments have undertaken concrete steps in the opening of accession negotiations. The integration process is in a very significant momentum which dictates dialogue and partnership. Every country that has set as a goal the EU integration, should respect the integration criteria’s or as known the ‘Copenhagen criteria’s’, on the basis under which the European Commission deliver the opinion in regard of every application. These criteria’s are defined during the European Council of Copenhagen in 1993 and accomplished during the European Council in Madrid in 1995. These are political criteria’s such as : stability of institutions which guarantee democracy, rule of law, human rights and respect and protection of minorities; economic criteria’s such as the existence of an efficient economy, capacity to challenge competition pressure and internal market forces of the EU; the opportunity to take responsibilities which derive by law and policies of the EU ( acquis communitaire). Stability, peace and the integration of the Western Balkan countries en block, play a fundamental role for the present and the future of Europe. Over the years, it has become more evident the necessity to strengthen the EU policies against countries of this region. Considering the geographic position of Albania in the Mediterranean and its importance in oftentimes weak spots within the region, it deserves a special attention by the European institutions. Since the candidate country’s status up to now, Albania has reached a moderate progress in terms of democracy shifting from a hybrid regime to a flawed democracy. Flawed democracy countries reflect a bold weakness in democratic terms, among others an underdeveloped political culture, low participation in political life and issues concerning governance. Civil rights are still problematic especially when it comes at media censorship or in attacks against country opposition.
 
 Received: 05 May 2022 / Accepted: 16 May 2023 / Published: 20 May 2023

Firm supporter and severe critic – Germany’s two-pronged approach to EU enlargement in the Western Balkans

Germany has demonstrated an active commitment towards the accession perspective of the Western Balkans, which found its most vocal expression in the initiation of a Western Balkans summit in August 2014 and the ensuing “Berlin process”. However, German support reflexively goes hand in hand with a reference to rigid accession conditionality. This not only fosters stabilization and transformation in the Western Balkan states, but also – at the domestic level – counters widespread enlargement scepticism among decision makers and the German public. The far-reaching participation rights of the Federal Parliament, acquired by the 2009 amendments to the Act on EU Cooperation, involves the Bundestag inter alia in the opening of accession negotiations, thus also increasing domestic constraints for Germany’s position in the Council. Federal elections due in late 2017 and a political environment shaped by a discussion about migration, including from and through the Western Balkans, make enlargement policy a particularly hard-to-sell issue.

Challenging Events, Diminishing Influence? Relations with the Wider Europe

The EU’s wider European neighbourhood moved from a condition of challenges to one of disarray in the course of 2013. Excepting the bright spots of the accession to the EU of Croatia and the opening of accession negotiations with Serbia, the enlargement policy of the Union to its neighbours remained largely static. The Vilnius summit of the Eastern Partnership (EaP) of November 2013, intended as a moment to mark a deepening of the EU’s relationship with its eastern neighbours through the agreement of a new set of bilateral relations, was unsettled and an already negotiated and initialled association agreement with Ukraine remained unsigned. The EU struggled to develop a coherent collective response between its Member States to the civil war in Syria and was a largely irrelevant actor in the post-Arab Spring transitions taking place in other southern neighbours – most notably Egypt and Libya. The overall assessment of the EU’s policies towards the neighbourhood is that 2013 was a period largely of unravelling of its already meagre influence within the neighbourhood. This comes on the back of a disappointing policy performance in the preceding three years (Whitman and Juncos, 2011, 2012, 2013). The EU’s policies for its neighbourhood are largely irrelevant to the transition processes in its southern neighbourhood. Furthermore, they are now being challenged directly and actively in its eastern neighbourhood by Russia, which has developed a competing model of economic integration to that on offer from the EU. The slow recovery of the eurozone economies in the course of 2013 has, however, had a locomotive effect for the economies of the EU’s neighbours in the Western Balkans. Assuming that the pace of growth continues, and the eurozone continues its move into what appeared to be a period of post-crisis stabilization, there may be grounds for optimism that the EU’s economic and political capital can be more fully engaged with the multiple challenges of its wider neighbourhood.

Toward a Unity of Ethics and Practice: Interpreting Inclusion and Diversity

This article proceeds from the claim that the separation between normative political theory, political science, and politics is artificial, and that it should be challenged. In the first section, insights offered by Hans-Georg Gadamer and Charles Taylor, as well as more recent hermeneutic studies, will be brought in to show what we have to gain by incorporating normative theory and normative commitments into interpretive research programs. In the second section, I will interpret the normative commitments, with regard to inclusion, contained in the national-cosmopolitan debate, and the normative commitments, with regard to diversity, contained in the communitarian-multicultural debate. This section will close with the phrasing of “thematic questions,” which occupy each of the debates, and of the typical answers each approach gives to these questions. This thematic-questions-and-typical-answers framework can be used as an interpretive instrument in the study of existing communities. The last section will exemplify how such an interpretation may be conducted. I will put forth an interpretation of the European Parliament's debate on the opening of accession negotiations with Turkey. I will show how asking the text the thematic questions, looking for answers within it, and identifying their normative orientation can produce insights on the community.

The European Union’s Accession Negotiations with Turkey from a Foreign Policy Perspective

The opening of accession negotiations between Turkey and the EU is a historic turning point for the European Union’s foreign policy. This paper proposes that the EU needs to accept Turkey as a member — subject to Turkey’s ability to meet all the accession criteria — for the realization of its foreign policy objectives. The opening of accession negotiations with Turkey is a foreign policy decision for the EU with the aim of bringing about a transformation in Turkey as well as guaranteeing stability in the EU’s borders in the region where Turkey is located. The paper argues that Turkey’s accession is critical for the credibility of the EU’s foreign policy and its enlargement process. In addition, Turkey’s accession would significantly add to the EU’s hard and soft power capabilities, enhancing its role as an international actor.

Croatia on the Way to EU: Labour Law and the Free Movement of Workers

The evolutionary process of ever-closer Croatian relations to the EU has been developing over years. Croatia signed the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU on 29 October 2001, which entered into force not before 1 February 2005. The SAA is an essential element of the EU’s Stabilisation and Association Process with the ‘‘Western Balkans’’. It is a comprehensive agreement, similar to the ‘‘Europe Agreements’’ with previous candidate countries, providing the contractual framework for relations between the EU and Croatia until Croatian accession to the EU. Croatia presented its application for EU membership on 21 February 2003 and the Commission published its Opinion on Croatia’s Application for Membership of the EU on 20 April 2004. European Council of 17 and 18 June 2004 subsequently decided that Croatia was a candidate country. Although the opening of accession negotiations was conditionally scheduled for 17 March 2005 and the Council adopted framework for negotiations with Croatia, due to political reasons, they did not start before 4 October 2005. In April 2005, the Croatian Government appointed the negotiations delegation and the negotiation team consisting of 13 negotiators (each negotiator is responsible for several negotiating chapters). Since it was decided that in the negotiations with Croatia acquis communautaire will be divided into 35 chapters (they used to be 31 until then), the Government also appointed 35 heads of working groups, one for each negotiating chapter, whose main functions involve the screening process and drafting of position papers for negotiations in the

The Community Trap: Liberal Norms, Rhetorical Action, and the Eastern Enlargement of the European Union

The decision of the European Union to expand to Central and Eastern Europe is a puzzle for rationalist intergovernmentalism. This approach to the study of European integration accounts for most of the preferences of the state actors and many characteristics of the intergovernmental bargaining process but fails to explain why it resulted in the opening of accession negotiations. I introduce the mechanism of rhetorical action in order to show how the supporters of enlargement succeeded in overcoming the superior material bargaining power of their opponents. Through the strategic use of arguments based on the liberal norms of the European international community, the “drivers” caught the “brakemen” in the community trap and, step by step, shamed them into acquiescing in Eastern enlargement.