Western Balkans, Organised Crime and The Euro Crisis: Myths and Realities on the Road to Accession

By placing Western Balkans in the contemporary European economic context shaped by the ongoing debt crisis, the article discusses current strengths and weaknesses of Western Balkan countries towards EU accession. While the achievement of financial adjustment albeit the continuous presence of economic dualism along with the side effects produced by the global crisis are stressed, the article sheds light on the challenges of organized crime and corruption as a major risk factor and a barrier in the event that Europe abandons the completion of Balkan enlargement. With the Europeans unwilling turning the Balkan question into a hard European one the author provides argumentation for steadily moving from Balkan skepticism to Balkan realism. Keywords: Western Balkans, EU, debt crisis, organized crime, corruption