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Political Economy, Inward Foreign Direct Investment and EU Accession of the Western Balkans

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Abstract

The 2008 financial crisis along with the Eurozone debt problems, the “Brexit,” and the expanding influence of other powers in the volatile region of Western Balkans (WBs), revived the prospects of the EU’s Eastern Enlargement. The EU Commission set as a target the year 2025. The unresolved legacies of the 1990s and the slowness of implementation in the required reforms according to the Copenhagen Accession Criteria left six transition economies of WBs out of the EU. This chapter aims to map the main obstacles that these non-EU members in the WBs must overcome to complete their political and economic transformation in achieving the 2025 EU membership. Chapter’s focus is the role of the inward FDI in WB’s European future using a political economy approach.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece

    John Marangos, Eirini Triarchi & Themis Anthrakidis

  2. Hellenic Open University, Patras, Greece

    John Marangos

  3. University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece

    Eirini Triarchi

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  1. John Marangos
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  2. Eirini Triarchi
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of International and European Studies, University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Vasileios Vlachos

  2. Department of International and European Studies, University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Aristidis Bitzenis

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Marangos, J., Triarchi, E., Anthrakidis, T. (2019). Political Economy, Inward Foreign Direct Investment and EU Accession of the Western Balkans. In: Vlachos, V., Bitzenis, A. (eds) European Union. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18103-1_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18103-1_8

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