EU-Erweiterung in Krisenzeiten? Zur Beitrittsreife Der Beitrittskandidaten vom Westbalkan

Abstract

The topicality of the paper’s subject “EU accession of the Western Balkan Countries” results from the fact that despite the unresolved crises in the EU, in autumn 2019 the EU member states will decide whether to open accession negotiations with the Western Balkan states of North Macedonia and Albania. Due to doubts concerning the readiness of accession of these countries, the discussion on an alternative option for EU integration between full membership and non-membership for countries that are only partially ready for accession is reviving. The focus here is particularly on economic integration. The corresponding objective of the paper is to clarify whether from an economic point of view doubts about the accession readiness of northern Macedonia and Albania, as well as of the other Western Balkan accession candidates Montenegro and Serbia, are justified. The research tasks in this contribution are reflected in the following modules: drawing conclusions from evaluations by the EU, a statistical analysis of the economic development in the candidate countries, the simulation of convergence processes for each Western Balkan state, the evaluation of international country rankings and finally the execution of a cost analysis of the EU accession of the Western Balkan states.