ABSTRACT
The so-called Balkan route, which in 2015–2016 was followed by almost a million migrants, has taken a central role in the political development of the European Union beyond migration policies and has had considerable implications for the Southeast Europe region. Although the solution identified in the EU-Turkey agreement drastically reduced its size, the migratory wave provoked a deep political crisis in the EU that remains unsolved despite repeated efforts to tackle it. The Balkan route overturned EU-Balkan relations. While previously the EU had aimed to stabilise the Western Balkans and consolidate democracy and human rights in the region, once it required their collaboration to control migratory waves, it started exporting instability to fragile countries in institutional, economic and political terms. This chapter examines the decade-long evolution of the migratory route from early 2010, highlighting the various factors characterising the EU response and the implications at the regional political level. It discusses the initial collaborative responses when the countries involved saw themselves as transit countries and the worsening of the situation once the EU started externalising its asylum policies to the Western Balkans.
