EU Alignment and Accession: “Separate Domains” in the Foreign Policies of the Western Balkan Six

While misalignment with the EU CFSP positions happens on regular basis to member states, the nature of the process of accession to the EU and the inherent imbalance in relations between the EU and the aspiring countries is such that those that pursue membership are subject to higher demands and expectations. The membership candidate (Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia) and potential candidate countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo) in the Western Balkans have defined EU membership as a strategic goal, declaratively accept the EU Global Strategy and its goals, but in practice, their support to the High Representative's declarations and Council decisions is not certain and does not correlate with the degree of accession to the EU. The study of the contestation looks at the particular cases of disagreement and identifies the development of the so-called „separate domains“, as issues of special national interests in the foreign policies of the Western Balkan countries that remain untouched by the EU and its accession process. Moreover, the more the positions of the EU differ from the positions of the competing powers, Russia, China and US primarily, the stronger is the need to preserve these „separate domains“ in some of the WB countries. The nature of the contestation that stems from the special relations with the powers far less involved in the region than the EU, reveal the limits of the EU as foreign policy actor as they point to actual positions and power relations perceptions that are not related to the level of engagement and invested resources. In addition, the study dwells on the more general effect of the accession process as an instrument of EU foreign policy, as it, apparently, has not contributed significantly to the elimination of the EU contestation in the region.