ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes the main arguments of the previous contributions and re-evaluates the process of Member State building. It demonstrates the flaws in the current EU approach, which include unclear conditions, the inability of the EU to speak with one voice and the focus on policy reforms which are not part of the acquis. Instead, the chapter proposes a new approach, which would engage more strongly with the Western Balkan states, would set clear criteria and deadlines and would include other societal actors such as NGOs in the enlargement process. It is concluded that the integration of the Western Balkans remains of key importance for the EU itself, because EU Foreign and Defence Policy developed as a response to the crisis in Yugoslavia and to the EU’s failures during the Yugoslav Wars, and the EU’s integration of the region could become its biggest success story so far. However, for the EU to be taken seriously as a foreign policy actor in the region and beyond, it is important that EU institutions and Member States alike re-focus their attention on the Western Balkans and their EU integration.
