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Workshop Program: "EU Enlargement and Institutional Reform in Southeast Europe"
01/28/2009
workshop program
Workshop
5-6 February 2009
Research College “The Transformative Power of Europe”
Otto-Suhr-Institute for Political Science
Freie Universität Berlin
At the turn of more than one decade of violent and uncertain transitions, the EU has envisaged a new vision for the region -it promises to transform those countries into stable, self-sufficient democracies, at peace with themselves and each other, with market economies and the rule of law, and which will be either members of the EU or on the road to membership. This ambitious project builds on a new strategy -the Stabilization and Association Process (SAP) - which for the first time comprises the prospect of European membership and outlines the tools of achieving that for all the countries in the Western Balkans (WB). The SAP has created high expectations for change, which are further nourished by the strong assumption on the EU transformative power in the previous wave of enlargement in the post-communist area. The project aims to explore whether and to what extent the SAP has fostered the promised transformation in the target countries in the Balkans, focusing on various areas of institutional change. Case studies from the Balkan countries will help us elucidate some of the lingering dark spots with regard to domestic impact of EU enlargement - how do we measure the effect of EU mechanisms on the EU membership aspiring countries? What are the areas where the EU was successful or not? Which of the instruments were more effective to foster democratisation? And, how has this worked in the Balkans where the EU faced particularly challenging environments?
For more detailed information see workshop program
