The EU Should Admit the Western Balkan Countries Soon Even if They Do Not Meet all Criteria
The Name of the Class
Introduction
Nowadays there are 28 member countries in the European Union. From its humble beginning as a peace holder after the horrible outcomes of the end of the first and second world wars, European Union grew to the powerful and strong economic and political union. EU countries share common economic zone, political values, such as strict rules towards corruption, and so on. Historically, the reason why “ECSC or the European Coal and Steel Community” (Cia.gov, 2016) was so successful that it enabled to create EU afterwards, was because after couple of years of its operations, “the decision was made to integrate other elements of the countries’ economies and making itself a “closer union” (Cia.gov, 2016). This strategy works until nowadays in the 21st century. The last country that joined EU was Croatia that is among Western Balkan nations, and five more Balkan nations want to join EU. There are quite a lot of different opinions and controversies regarding the topic of whether EU should admit the Western Balkan countries even if they do not meet all criteria, or whether EU should ban the Western Balkan countries from entering the EU union.
Western Balkan Countries
As it was mentioned before, in total there are seven Western Balkan nations – Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania. These countries have many things in common, such as geographical and cultural proximity, and political past of communist regime, as in the past all Western Balkan nations were part of former Yugoslavia. Therefore, the high level of corruption between government officials is a common thing in those countries, and in order to meet the qualification to join the EU, most of these countries are ready to change their political systems, as EU values transparency and stands against the corruption. I believe that the integration of Balkan nations to the European Union is beneficial for EU and for Balkans themselves. First of all, “enlargement is the most ambitious Project of European Union, based in the idea of economic, political and military reunion” (Pipa, 2014). Besides the European Union, there is no other union and agreement in the world that has such a strong geographical, political, military and trade power. NAFTA or ASEAN agreements cannot be compared with EU in terms of size and power. Besides, when it comes to dealing with political problems in the world, one of the most powerful decision comes from the United States and the European Union government officials. The more countries will be inside the EU, the more powerful the union will be in terms of economic and military points of views. According to the official source of information that comes from scholarly source, “Europe is not complete without Western Balkan” (Pipa, 2014) no one says that integration process will be easy, because quite a lot of changes and reforms must be conducted in order to do so, but it will be worth the challenges undertaken. As for the Balkan nations, they want to join EU for the many reasons, such as “advancement, especially after the fall of Berlin Wall and former Yugoslavia, economic development, unemployment decrease, stability, crime reduction, and peace” (Pipa, 2014), and many other reasons.
Croatia is the first nation among Western Balkan countries that was joined to European Union in 2013. Currently European Union negotiates with the government officials of the other six countries. Such countries as Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Albania nowadays are “official candiates” (De Munter, 2015). Bosnia and Herzegovina along with Kosovo “are potential candidate countries” (De Munter, 2015). Since Balkan countries have become more familiar in this report, now it is the right time to present and to discuss two arguments. The first argument is whether the EU should admit the Balkan nations even if they do not meet all the requirements and qualifications. The second argument is whether EU should not admit the Balkan nations.
EU Should Admit the Balkan nations no matter what
The benefits for Balkan Nations
The admittance of Western Balkan nations to EU is mutually beneficial to both sides. Mutual benefit is the most important thing in negotiations, politics, and in unions as well. First, the benefits of Balkan nations will be discussed in case if EU admits them. Secondly, the benefits of EU will be discussed in case if EU admits Balkan nations. Balkan region is known for its challenging politics history and instability period when Kosovo as the youngest nation in the world evolved in 2008, tensions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and other political and historical milestones. Nowadays the region has become more peaceful than it was nine or ten years ago. Balkan region is quite different politically, historically and culturally compared to the EU. Balkans have closer ties with Russia both historically, politically and economically, there is a corruption level between its high level officials, transparency is not that high, and so on. Government officials know that However, the main reasons of why Balkan nations want to be admitted to the EU is because of “trade, stabilisation, economic and social development, along with democratic stabilisation” (Patten, 2004). Besides, joining EU can help Balkan nations to improve their level of living, deal with unemployment issues, reducing war criminals and nationalistic tensions, as well as making sure about the peace in the region that will be guaranteed by the EU. Yes, Balkan region is not perfect; it has many implications in terms of freedom of speech, corruption, “poor administrative capacity, and weak law” (Patten, 2004). The government officials are awared of those problems and are willing to work towards them with the help of European Union via such programs as “Community Assistance for reconstruction, development and stabilisation (Patten, 2004) (CARDS) that works towards such issues as economic and social development, justice and home affairs, democratic stabilisation” (Patten, 2004), and many others. Balkan nations along with its governments are willing to work towards their problems in order to meet EU qualifications in order to provide their countries a better life economically, peacefully and politically.
The Benefits for EU
European Union will have benefits for sure if it admits Western Balkan nations. First, the union will expand geographically and military, and therefore, it will gain more power in the region. Secondly, as it was mentioned in the introduction paragraph, EU will be able to integrate the economies of Balkan countries into EU common economy, and as a result, it will lead to the stronger and closer union. For example, based on real life event, when Croatia entered EU in 2013, EU gained such benefits as “political stability, the expansion of European Union’s internal market, extension of EU standards in energy, security, environmental protection, phyto-sanitary rules” (Delegation, n.d). In addition, when Croatia joined EU, there were new opportunities created for European Union citizens, business people and entrepreneurs, as one more country and market integrated into the same union (Delegation, n.d). There were definitely risks for European Union to accept and to admit Croatia, but EU gained power in terms of geographical, economic and military points of view.
EU Should Not Admit the Balkan Nations
There is the other argument supported by many politicians, such as that EU should not admit the Balkan nations. There are many reasons behind this argument, but after careful research, I decided to combine the most important reasons. First, there are quite a lot of risks to admit the Balkan nations due to the economic crisis (Hadziristic, 2015). Second, based on the previous experiences of the EU entrance of such nations, as Romania,Bulgaria and Croatia (Bogdanic, 2013), there were a lot of issues and challenges when it came to the admission of these countries to the European Union (Hadziristic, 2015). In addition, Balkan region has a significant criminal activity, as well as strong nationalistic views. European Union is a union of countries that are supposed to support each other in difficult situations regardless if it is political, economic or military issues. However, nowadays, based on the Syrian refugees problem, the whole world sees that European Union is not united at all. France, Great Britain and Germany tend to have negotiations regarding the amount of refugees they can accept to their countries, while Eastern European countries are completely against negotiations towards the refugee problem that has flooded Europe nowadays. Governments of Eastern European countries such as Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Czech Republic (Foundation, 2015) reject to solve the problem with the Western European countries and are closed for negotiations (Foundation, 2015). Years ago Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania waited for their acceptance to European Union, declaring that EU will give them stability both economically, socially, and politically. However, based on the real life example described above, we can see that Eastern European countries, and especially their governments just wanted to seek benefits for themselves. Once they did, no one cares about the union where all countries should be together, especially in harsh situations. Balkan region is closer to Eastern European region; therefore, there will be tensions in solving problems together as the union. Besides, if EU admits Balkan countries with all their problems, it may only worsen its internal problems in addition to Greek financial problems, mass refugee amounts from Syria and other countries, as well as the financial crisis all over the world, including Europe.
Conclusion
EU Should Admit the Balkan Countries No Matter What
Yes, there are problems and challenges for admitting the Western Balkan Nations. According to two real life examples provided with Slovakia and Eastern European countries, it is clearly seen that there are both advantages and disadvantages of the expansion of the European Union. Taking away the refugee issue that causes the separation of the views between Western and Eastern European countries, inability to negotiate with some governments, there are more advantages in the expansion of European Union. The advantages include more power, increased trade and economic zone, military confidence, free movement between goods and people, more entrepreneurship and business opportunities, and so on. If European Union wants to follow its historical success and the reasons behind that success – the integration of European economics into the one, EU should overcome challenges and gain some patience despite the turbulent situation in the world nowadays. “If EU keeps its door open and reframes the enlargement agenda in economic terms, as a credible blueprint for growth and new jobs” (Nic, 2013), then Western Balkan nations will be able to integrate closer, easier, and faster to the European Union. As it was said before, Europe is not full without Balkans and Balkans are not protected without Europe.
Bibliography
Cia.gov, (2016). The World Factbook. [online] Available at:
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ee.html [Accessed 10 Feb. 2016].
De Munter, A. (2015). THE WESTERN BALKANS. [online] Europarl.europa,eu. Available at:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/ftu/pdf/en/FTU_6.5.2.pdf [Accessed 10 Feb. 2016].
Pipa, D. (2014). BARRIERS AND DESIRE OF WESTERN BALKAN COUNTRIES TO BE
INTEGRATED TO THE EUROPEAN UNION. [online] Eujournal.org. Available at:
http://eujournal.org/index.php/esj/article/viewFile/2833/2664 [Accessed 10 Feb. 2016].
Patten, C. (2004). Building the Future Together. [online] Available at:
http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/financial_assistance/cards/publications/brochure_en.pdf
[Accessed 11 Feb. 2016].
Hadziristic, T. (2015). Post-2015 EU accession of the Western Balkans: Is travelling more
important than arriving?. [online] Analitika - Center for social research. Available at:
http://www.analitika.ba/en/publications/post-2015-eu-accession-western-balkans-travelling-
more-important-arriving [Accessed 11 Feb. 2016].
Nic, M. (2013). The EU’s role in the Western Balkans after Croatian accession. [online]
cepolicy.org. Available at: http://www.cepolicy.org/publications/eus-role-western-balkans-
after-croatian-accession [Accessed 11 Feb. 2016].
Bogdanic, S. (2014). Rude awakening for Croatia after EU accession | European Elections 2014
| DW.COM | 15.04.2014. [online] DW.COM. Available at: http://www.dw.com/en/rude-
awakening-for-croatia-after-eu-accession/a-17559492 [Accessed 11 Feb. 2016].
Delegation of the European Union to the United States, (n.d.). Croatia and the EU: Reaping the
Economic Benefits of Enlargement. [online] Available at: http://www.euintheus.org/press-
media/croatia-and-the-eu-reaping-the-economic-benefits-of-enlargement/ [Accessed 12 Feb.
2016].
Foundation, S. (2015). CHRISTIANS ONLY, PLEASE! Slovakia isn't the only Eastern European
country refusing to take in Muslim refugees - Walid Shoebat. [online] Walid Shoebat.
Available at: http://shoebat.com/2015/08/21/christians-only-please-slovakia-isnt-the-only-
eastern-european-country-refusing-to-take-in-muslim-refugees/ [Accessed 12 Feb. 2016].
