Peace and security in 2018
Publisher: European Parliamentary Research Service
Volume: 228 pages, pdf
Description:
EU policy in the Western Balkans has shifted from one of stabilisation and containment to a much more ambitious policy of 'positive peace'-building, which is embodied in the EU enlargement process. It has implied that, in order to restore normality after a period of dramatic destruction of human and economic capital and to promote the reestablishment of an EU-like way of life in the Western Balkans, the EU has gone beyond disarming, repairing roads, re-establishing free flows of goods and helping refugees return home. In Bosnia-Herzegovina first, and then in the rest of the region, the EU has advocated a genuine and inclusive 'positive peace', which comprises reconciliation, respect for the rule of law, free elections, equal political and social opportunities, a free press, civil society participation, economic growth – i.e. not just paying lip service to bringing about peace, but actually putting ideas into practice. In the 1990s, the EU and its Member States failed to secure the end of military conflict and bloodshed in Bosnia-Herzegovina (1992-1996) and Kosovo (1999). The EU was unprepared to tackle these challenges; and the United Nations, the United States and NATO had to step in to end the wars. Although Member States maintained a broad consensus on key decisions, they also faced, and continue to face, highly divisive moments (the recognition of Croatia in 1991, and the handling of the Kosovo 'status question' since 1999). Equally, other major powers – the United States, Russia, Turkey, and China – present in an already overcrowded international playground have exerted their influence in the region in recent years, some of them to the detriment of EU leverage.