National and Local Governments: Institutional Rebuilding and Politics in the Balkans

Abstract

Just barely has, in May 2004, the EU completed the most significant round of enlargement to date, by admitting ten new countries and roughly 75 million people, that the issue of further enlargements to the Balkans is already on the table of the new Commission and the European public opinion. Sheer economic convenience — the creation of an even larger common market — cannot explain the drive towards the inclusion of the Balkan countries in the European Union, as it is exceedingly difficult to calculate the short — and long-term costs and benefits for current member-states and for prospective members. It is rather the historical mission of the European Community (EC)/Union, of securing peace through prosperity and prosperity through peace on the European continent, that stands out as the main rationale for enlargement to the Balkan area. In turn, this finality poses European institutions with probably unprecedented challenges (see Chapter by Gozi).