The Idea of a United Europe and the prospect of the Western Balkans

The paper is published in 2020 in a bulgarian collection "Media and Communication. Scientific collection of doctoral students from the Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication". ISBN 978-954-07-4909-9. The article aims to outline the message of the concepts of the European and Euro-Atlantic integration. The text draws attention to the new conditions and criteria for membership of the European Union for the countries of the Western Balkan which they must fulfill in order to join EU. Their recovery and coping with the legacy of the severe wars from the 1990s have not yet come to an end. They first need to pass the stabilization and democratization processes and only after that can be associated. The paper focuses on the European Union’s policy towards the Western Balkans since the launching of the Stabilization and Association Process in 1999 until the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU in 2018. Although all the progress during the last two decades in the countries of the Western Balkans they still don’t have enough achievements in some of the most important areas – democracy, rule of law, human rights and minority rights, competitive market. The willingness of the Western Balkans’ governments to join the Union is prominent but the European leaders are not taking yet any commitment to certain promise regarding the European integration of the region. Keywords: European idea, European Union, enlargement of the EU, Euro-Atlantic integration, Euro-Atlantic values, Western Balkans