THE EUROPEAN UNION AS A PEACE-BUILDER IN THE WESTERN BALKAN COUNTRIES

Abstract

After the Cold War, the Western Balkan countries have become an important so-called “laboratory for the EU”, able to exert its EU crises management and transformative power. Through restoring stability in the region, overcoming ethno–territorial and inter–ethnic conflicts, improving regional cooperation, consolidating democracy, building democratic institutions and promoting market economy, EU’s goal was to make war unthinkable in this region. The term peace-building is often attributed to Johan Galtung1, who in his book, ‘Three approaches to peace: peace-keeping, peace-making, and peace-building’, argued that ‘peace has a structure different from, perhaps over and above, peacekeeping and ad hoc peacemaking (…). More specifically, structures must be found that remove causes of wars and offer alternatives to war in situations where wars might occur’. This paper will try to explore whether, how and to what extent, the EU has contributed as a peace-builder in the Western Balkans, using crises management operations and mission and enlargement policy. Also, this paper aims to explore how the international community has aided the nations of the Western Balkans in creating peace and building democratic institutions. First, thе paper will analyze the role of several police and military missions in creating peace, and then it will looks towards the process of EU integration, following the year 2007, and how the EU process has partially lost its track subsequent to the swift and un-merited accession of Bulgaria and Romania. Second, the paper contains the opinion as to how NATO and the European Union should shape their policies towards the Western Balkans in the near future.