BALKANLAR

In these countries, it is aimed to create a civil democratic structure with a power-sharing model based on four basic mechanisms: grand coalition, minority veto, proportional representation and local autonomy.

However, ethnic identities are still the main factor in determining political preferences, especially in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia.

High unemployment rate in the region is still very high. Kosovo has the highest unemployment rate in Europe, at 25.3%.

Piran Bay: The disputed maritime delimitation area is located in the northernmost part of the Adriatic Sea which is embraced by three countries— Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia—and is called the Trieste Bay. Since the border between Slovenia and Croatia, which became independent after the dissolution of Yugoslavia in 1991, was not determined in detail before independence, many parts of the border remained controversial in Piran Bay and turned into a serious conflict between the two countries.

The EU evaluates the Balkan geography by dividing it into two parts as East and West. After Greece, the goal of integration with the Eastern Balkans was achieved with the membership of Bulgaria and Romania in 2007. After the period of wars in the former Yugoslavia, the European Union developed a new strategy called the Western Balkans in order to ensure stability and security in this region and to integrate the region into the EU gradually. The region consisting of Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo and Albania, which are the countries that left the Former Yugoslavia, except Slovenia, are called the Western Balkans by the EU.

Croatia applied for EU membership in 2003 and was in negotiations from 2005 until 2011. On 9 December 2011 leaders from the EU and Croatia signed the accession treaty. The country became the 28th EU member country on 1 July 2013.

North Macedonia signed the Prespa Agreement with Greece in 2018

Serbia, which started negotiations in 2015, has not been able to open new chapters since June 2019. It is certain that Serbia cannot become a member of the EU without normalizing relations with Kosovo.

117 countries in the world recognize Kosovo, while Russia and China, which are permanent members of the UN Security Council, do not recognize Kosovo. Among the Western Balkan countries, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina do not recognize Kosovo. Countries that do not recognize Kosovo’s independence are: Greece, Southern Cyprus, Slovakia, Romania and Spain. Greece and Southern Cyprus, their reservations about the Cyprus issue; Slovakia, Romania and Spain do not recognize Kosovo due to minority issues within themselves.

The joining of Montenegro to in 2017 and North Macedonia to NATO in 2020 have been the last indicators of the weight of the US in the Balkans.

Western Balkans encompasses Balkan countries which are not members of the EU (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Republic of Kosovo, North Macedonia (formerly FYROM: Former Yugoslavia Republic of Macedonia) Serbia and Croatia, Southeastern Europe as well as Bulgaria and Romania which are members of the EU and sometimes Turkey.

While Romania and Bulgaria, which became full members of the EU in 2007, relatively solved their problems, the Western Balkans region still faces a series of challenges

Ethnic identities are still the main factor in determining political preferences, especially in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia. People vote for a political party that represents their ethnicity. There are very few political parties in these countries that represent the entire population.

Greece, the oldest EU member of the Balkans, has a fragile economy that could trigger a new euro crisis for the European Central Bank at any time, while in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean also escalating conflicts with neighbouring Turkey.

Some regional NGOs under the umbrella of the British Saferworld organization submitted a report in April 2012 examining the impact of existing borders on the lives of people living along the borders of the Western Balkans. This report indicates a number of conflict issues between Kosovo- Montenegro, Kosovo -Serbia, Montenegro -Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina - Croatia that create problems in the life of the people and in border crossings.

Since both Bosnia and Kosovo could not have a strong central structure and were divided among ethnic elements, it was easier for Western powers to seize and maintain control in these countries. Today, the most recent examples of the international protection model in the Balkans are Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo.

Figure 7.4 EU Integration Process of Western Balkans on page 180

Croatia’s EU membership was a significant success, as it was the first regional representative and the first country to enter the post-conflict Union.

Camp Bondsteel, the largest US military base outside the US, has been built in Kosovo since the Vietnam War.

Currently, one of China’s most important allies in the Balkans is Serbia. In August 2009, Serbian President Boris Tadic went to China and a strategic cooperation agreement was signed between the two countries.