Regional Cooperation on Migration in the Western Balkans –Impact of the European Union

CRPRC Studiorum Researcher, Biljana Kotevska, gave her contribution to the Political Thought Journal with the article “How to Stop Pretending and Start Cooperating: Impact of the European Union on Regional Cooperation in the Western Balkans – focus on Migration”. This article presents part of the findings of the fellowship research Kotevska is doing in Migration Policy Group within the frame of the EFB/OSI-TTF Policy Research Fellowship programme.The article aims to shed more light on the regional cooperation between Western Balkan countries by looking into the case of regional cooperation efforts in this region in the area of migration. It tries to formulate an understanding of why regional cooperation in this region is that important to the European Union, and how the EU acts towards achieving it. The importance of regional ownership of the regional cooperation processes is emphasised by the international community and acknowledged by the countries from the region. However, the EU is still the main engine of regional cooperation, managing to pull with the power of conditionality. This raises the question of whether the farthest we could go is to claim that regional ownership is in the making…. To read the full article, click here.

Political Thought is a journal on socio-political issues published by the Institute for Democracy Societas Civilis, Macedonia and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. The issue on regional cooperation in the Western Balkans was promoted in the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia. On this occasion, members of the Macedonian parliament and ambassadors of the countries in the region discussed their views on the benefits of intensified regional cooperation in the Western Balkans for the Western Balkans countries.

Reference of journal: Political Thought – Regional Cooperation in the Western Balkans on the Road to EU and NATO, Year 8, No 31, September, Skopje 2010 (ISSN 1409-9853).

Useful links:

Political Thought No. 31 : http://www.kas.de/mazedonien/en/publications/20858/

Fellowship Programme for Policy Researchers from the Western Balkans Region: http://balkanfund.org/the-news/envisioning-europe/policy-reseachers-2010.html

Migration Policy Group: http://www.migpolgroup.com/