The point where EU’s top-down conditionality hits executive bias in developing democracies of the Western Balkans
Author: Hata Kujraković
The main reform driver of the Western Balkan countries is the EU integration path. Within the process of adoption and implementation of the necessary norms and reforms, the EU primarily engage in a dialogue with the executive branch members, deepening the executive bias. Even though the domestic parliaments are not completely kept out of the process, there is a lack of formal political dialogue between the EU and the MPs from the WB countries. The chances of the national parliaments and the civil society sector to scrutinize the accession process are very limited due to the EU’s top-down conditionality. This negatively affects the democratization of the WB countries and calls for a greater inclusivity of the whole process.
Keywords: European Union, Accession process, Top-down conditionality, Executive bias, Western Balkans, Democratization
VPI BH RESEARCH INTERNSHIP paper, Foreign Policy Initiative BH, 2020.
Mentor: Lejla Ramić-Mesihović, PhD
B/H/S version: Available soon
About Hata Kujraković
Hata Kujraković is an MSc student of European Affairs at Lund University, Sweden. She holds a BA in International Relations and European Studies from International Burch University, BiH. She has worked on various projects related to the improvement and promotion of human rights and advancement of knowledge in the sciences among students in BiH. Her interests are political processes in the EU. Hata is a Humanity in Action BiH fellow, where she also worked as a project assistant.
