According to the 2016 EU Global Strategy, a credible accession process grounded in strict and fair conditionality is essential to foster resilience in the Western Balkans.
This Report – prepared by the EUISS with the support and cooperation of the European Fund for the Balkans (EFB) – examines how the Western Balkans has emerged once again as a potentially volatile geopolitical arena, and analyses the drivers underpinning both fragility and resilience in the countries of the region from a variety of perspectives. It explores how policy approaches, mechanisms and instruments that have hitherto been applied might be adapted to counter those challenges (both internal and external) that threaten the EU accession perspective.