Harmonization of the Western Balkan states and European Union common foreign and security policy: Between normativity, declarativity and reality

• Published in: Godisnjak Fakulteta politickih nauka
• Main Author: Đukanović, Dragan
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: srp
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: Western Balkans; EU Common Foreign and Security Policy; harmonisation; Montenegro; Serbia; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Albania; Macedonia; Kosovo; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://scindeks.ceon.rs/article.aspx?artid=1820-67001412009D

Harmonisation of the foreign policies of the Western Balkan states with the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) within the Charter 31 of the pre-accession negotiations will be a significant obligation and challenge for most of them. Within this context, the author takes as a starting point the regular annual reports on the progress achieved by the states in the region. They show the degree of harmonisation of their foreign policies with this Union's mechanism (within four years in the 2011-2014 period). The author of the article particularly points to the real and substantial discrepancy between the normative framework of the EU CFSP and the specific activities taken by the Western Balkan states in the part concerning their position to the current crisis in Ukraine which, in a way, 'reflects' the geo-strategic interests of the 'West', on one hand, and those of the Russian Federation, on the other. At the same time, he points to the membership in the North Atlantic Alliance as a favourable framework for the acceleration of harmonisation of a country's foreign policy with the EU CFSP.