THE EUROPEAN INTEGRATION OF THE WESTERN BALKANS AND THE RULE OF LAW (CURRENT SITUATION AND CHALLENGES)

Abstract

The further enlargement of the European Union is in a critical phase due to the changed political
circumstances both internally in the EU member states, but also in the geopolitical context. The
experiences from the past cycles of enlargement, both positive and negative, motivated some
of the member states and the European institutions to revise the process of the European
integration of the candidate countries, primarily the accession negotiations as a central part of
the process, by setting the Rule of Law as a fundamental and most important criterion for the
accession. The Rule of Law is set as a crosscutting issue in the new revised Methodology for
the accession negotiations, adopted in 2020. It is part of the first cluster “Fundamentals” with
which the accession negotiations start and end. The paper analyzes the current situation and
challenges in the area of the Rule of Law in North Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro and Albania,
all of them candidate countries from the region of the Western Balkans, following the 2024
Rule-of-Law Report prepared by the European Commission that included beside the member
states, also the mentioned candidate countries.