CONTRIBUTIONS AND SCOPE OF REGIONAL ECONOMIC INITIATIVES IN THE IMPROVEMENT OF POLITICAL RELATIONS BETWEEN THE WESTERN BALKANS’ STATES
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18485/Keywords:
new regionalism, regional economic initiatives, Common Regional Market, Berlin Process, Open Balkan, Western Balkans, European UnionAbstract
The limited progress of the Western Balkans’ states in the process of European integration and the discontent with the slow process of internal reforms opened up space for new initiatives and encouraged new forms of regional economic cooperation, such as the formation of the Common Regional Market (within the Berlin Process) and the “Open Balkan” initiative. The main research question is to what extent these regional economic initiatives have created new circumstances under which greater economic interdependence and increased foreign intraregional trade exchange could lead to the stronger political cooperation and improvement of political relations between the Western Balkans’ countries participating in these initiatives. Using the methods of structural analysis, document content analysis, discourse analysis as well as the case study method, the authors conclude that the “Open Balkans” initiative has a greater potential to contribute to deeper economic integration and a higher degree of political bilateral relations between the Republic of Serbia, the Republic of Albania and the Republic of North Macedonia due to its regional ownership and faster fulfillment of assumed obligations in relation to the Berlin Process.
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