The role of the European Union in shaping the foreign policy orientations of Western Balkan countries: a case study of the Republic of Serbia and Republic of Albania

Gavrilović Jefimija (Studentkinja master akademskih studija na Fakultetu političkih nauka, Univerziteta u Beogradu), jefimijagavrilovic01@gmail.com
Dabić Dragana (Naučni saradnik, Institut za međunarodnu politiku i privredu, Beograd), ddabic@diplomacy.bg.ac.rs

This paper explores the role of the European Union in shaping the foreign policy orientation of Western Balkan countries through a comparative case study of Serbia and Albania. The aim of the research is to indicate the factors leading to different outcomes of Europeanization in the region, and to demonstrate the effectiveness and limitations of the EU’s normative influence on the foreign policies of candidate countries. The theoretical framework is based on the concept of the EU’s normative power and the theory of Europeanization, which combined explain how the EU seeks to transfer its norms and values to candidate countries, and show ways in which those countries either internalize or reject those norms and values. Through comparative and qualitative methodological analysis, the paper presents the EU’s foreign policy instruments applied in its relations with Western Balkan countries, as well as the different foreign policy orientations of Serbia and Albania. The EU is a unique actor in the region, whose impact is conditioned by the specific national context of each country, historical legacies, geopolitical priorities, and political narratives, as well as by the credibility of the enlargement process and the consistent application of conditionality mechanisms. The paper concludes that the EU’s role is differentiated and conditioned both by the mechanisms it applies in the Europeanization process and by the internal characteristics of candidate countries, pointing to the need for reevaluation of the existing EU policies and strengthening the socio political will of regional states to internalize European values and norms.

Keywords: European Union Europeanization, normative power, Western Balkans, foreign policy, CFSP, Serbia, Albania.