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After 1990s, The Balkans Region has been categorized as two different sub regions by various international organizations. The first sub region is the Western Balkans, consisting of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Croatia and Macedonia. The other sub region is the Eastern Balkans Region consisting of Bulgaria and Romania. The countries in the Eastern Balkans became members of the European Union without any significant delay after the Cold War. The Western Balkans, on the other hand, face a challenging process towards EU membership due to the problematic historical process they live in, and because of their complex structure in ethnic, social and economic terms. The EU knows that the tension and conflicts that will emerge in this region, which it regards as its backyard, can also affect its own stability. For this reason, the EU is trying to democratize and strengthen the weak state structure in the Western Balkans. The EU uses the policies of conditionality and socialization as a means to achieve this goal. In this study, the effects of the EU's conditionality and socialization policies on the Western Balkans will be examined. |
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