Gradual EU Integration of the Western Balkans in Times of War in Europe: Security and the Politics of EU Enlargement in the 2020s

Abstract This article contributes to debates on the politics of European Union (EU) enlargement to the Western Balkans (WB) in the 2020s. During the 2010s, the enlargement process stalled due to a lack of progress on the EU’s fundamental requirements of ‘rule of law’ and ‘democracy’. Since 2022, Russia’s protracted war against Ukraine suggests that geopolitical considerations have become more important in the politics of EU enlargement. In order to overcome the enlargement impasse, the EU has recently proposed a gradual approach to integration, particularly with regard to market integration, which is to be facilitated by a new growth plan for the Western Balkans. This article argues that this ‘carrot’ and greater flexibility in general are intended to re-legitimise the EU-WB relationship. The EU can demonstrate its ongoing commitment to the region in a political process that remains open-ended, while WB governments can benefit from new opportunities and new budgets. Despite the ‘new momentum’ in EU enlargement policies, I argue that Serbian political discourse and action have become more violent in recent years and that a negligence of the security needs of the most fragile WB states has the power to derail the enlargement process. Reinforced commitments to KFOR and EUFOR Althea as well as reinvigorated EU assistance efforts in the fundamental requirements are needed to make full WB EU membership eventually happen.