ABSTRACT
This contribution provides a deeper analysis of the idea of EU Member State Building, which is used as the main theoretical framework of the volume. It starts with an assessment of the EU’s role as a foreign policy actor, and how the EU has been focused on developing foreign policy actorness in recent decades. It then assesses to what extent enlargement can be seen as a form of foreign policy and how the EU’s current Stabilization and Association Process (SAP) is underlined by normative assumptions. In the final part of the chapter, it is demonstrated how the EU has consistently undermined its own values when engaging with the Western Balkans, thereby creating a framework which is neither coherent, nor norm-based. While intervention and more active engagement was necessary in many Western Balkan states, the EU’s record for deep-rooted change is mixed, because it has been unable to provide a coherent message and speak with one voice.
