Europeanization Beyond Accession: Differentiated Integration and Domestic Constraints in EU Candidate States

Abstract

This panel examines Europeanization beyond EU borders by analysing how EU candidate states engage with EU norms, policies, and governance frameworks under conditions of prolonged accession, limited conditionality, and complex domestic and geopolitical constraints. Rather than treating Europeanization as a linear process driven by credible membership incentives, the panel conceptualises it as a differentiated, sector-specific, and often contested process shaped by domestic institutional structures, capacity constraints, and external security dynamics. Empirically, the panel focuses primarily on the Western Balkans, complemented by a comparative benchmark from Croatia as the EU’s most recent member state. The five contributions span multiple policy domains including judicial reform, security and defence, functional integration, and regional economic development, thereby capturing the multidimensional and uneven nature of Europeanization beyond formal membership. Two papers focus on Bosnia and Herzegovina to explore the limits of EU influence in contexts of deep institutional fragmentation. One paper examines the repeated failure of judicial reform, focusing on the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council, and demonstrates how the proliferation of institutional veto players and patterns of state capture neutralise EU conditionality despite formal alignment requirements. A second paper analyses the EU’s CSDP engagement through EUFOR Althea, highlighting the structural tension between capacity-building and dependency. It shows how prolonged security assistance can simultaneously enhance domestic capabilities while entrenching reliance on international intervention, thereby constraining Bosnia and Herzegovina’s transition from a security consumer to a security provider. A third contribution adopts a comparative perspective on security and defence Europeanization in Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. It examines alignment with CFSP and CSDP norms under conditions of geopolitical competition, enlargement fatigue, and prolonged candidacy, demonstrating how domestic political preferences and external security partnerships generate hybrid outcomes characterised by selective compliance and strategic ambiguity. Moving beyond security and governance, the fourth paper analyses the EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region (EUSAIR) as a potential driver of functional and differentiated integration. Focusing on sectoral cooperation in the blue economy, it assesses whether macro-regional governance enables Western Balkan candidate states to contribute to EU agenda-setting despite their non-member status, thereby offering alternative pathways of Europeanization beyond accession. The final paper provides a quantitative political economy analysis of regional inequalities in Croatia between 2003 and 2023. It demonstrates how EU integration and cohesion policy interact with domestic institutional capacity to reinforce core–periphery dynamics, offering Croatia as a contemporary benchmark for Western Balkan candidates facing similar post-socialist legacies and territorial challenges. Collectively, the panel contributes to debates on Europeanization beyond EU borders by highlighting how domestic veto structures, institutional capacity, and sector-specific governance shape differentiated integration outcomes. It advances a nuanced understanding of Europeanization as an uneven and non-linear process, with important implications for EU enlargement policy and external governance.

Title	Details
Euroscepticism in the Western Balkans as a Risk Factor for EU Enlargement in a New Geopolitical Context	View Paper Details
Top Down Europeanization and Domestic Codification: EU Reform Pressures and Implementation Capacity in Kosovo’s Public Administration	View Paper Details
The Limits of European Union Conditionality in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Judicial Reform and Institutional Vetoes	View Paper Details
Between Capacity-Building, Dependency, and EU Integration: EUFOR Althea, CSDP, and Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Path to Security Provision	View Paper Details
Europeanization in the Sector of Security and Defence in the Western Balkans	View Paper Details