The Slovenian EU Presidency and the Western Balkan Countries
The Slovenian EU Presidency and the Western Balkan Countries

Summary/Abstract: Slovenia became the first new member country of 2004 to hold the EU Presidency in the first half of 2008. The article focuses on one of the Presidency priorities, the Western Balkans, where this country has plenty of historical experience and manages a broad everyday business network. The Slovenian Presidency could achieve major breakthrough in some areas (SAA with Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia), enrich mutual EU-Western Balkan relations with a number of pragmatic approaches. In turn, no major results could be reported in the pre-negotiation status of Macedonia. Neither ongoing accession talks with Croatia could be accelerated. Obviously, the integration process of the Western Balkans is much more substantial and will not be solved within one Presidency. Two concluding chapters address some of the basic problems in the region, as compared to the transformation and accession process of the East Central European countries a decade ago, as well as the options of EU policies towards the Western Balkans, including some policy recommendations. It is stressed that the momentum of the enlargement promise as regards these countries has to be maintained during the next Presidencies, with special reference to the Czech (first half of 2009) and Hungarian (first half of 2011) ones.

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