European integration experience of the Western Balkans. Lessons for human rights defenders
For over a decade, Ukraine has been navigating political, legal, and economic challenges while striving toward full membership in the European Union. Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the process of European integration has accelerated due to the imminent threat to Ukraine’s security and sovereignty and to ensuring sustainable democracy in Europe.
Thanks to the support of the majority of EU member states and the proper response of Ukrainian institutions, Ukraine was granted the status of a candidate country on 23 June 2023 and the EU officially opened accession negotiations on 25 June 2024. However, the effectiveness of reforms to obtain the status of a member state, their short and long-term impact on society, and the speed of fulfilling all the requirements set in the negotiations with the EU depend on several important factors and the effective use of instruments that can contribute to this.
In this regard, it is useful to study the experience of the Western Balkan countries, which have long faced various obstacles on their European integration path, including partial blocking of certain reforms by the state authorities. This, in turn, leads to their formality or inefficiency, a significant decline in public support for EU membership, a slowdown in the pace of integration by the EU, and a significant impact of disinformation campaigns.
The experience of the Western Balkan countries, in particular Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro, although different, has much in common. These countries have developed adaptability mechanisms as the EU accession methodology has changed several times. In addition, the long duration of the European integration process for the Western Balkan countries contributed to the formation of a strong civil society and the development of advocacy tools relevant to the Eastern Partnership countries.
