CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2012
| Author | Stajikj, Dalibor |
|---|---|
| Title | Minority Protection in the Western Balkans under the Weight of EU Conditionality: Pre-accession Monitoring as a Mechanism of Furthering or Compromising Compliance? |
| Summary | The debate on conditionality as a principle of enlargement has heralded pre-accession monitoring as a key mechanism of compliance with EU standards. Nevertheless, the academic camp has not provided an in-depth insight into how monitoring contributes to the failure or success of enlargement and how it should proceed. Facing the next enlargement round to the Western Balkans, this thesis investigates in detail how progress made by the Western Balkan candidate countries is monitored in the area of minority protection. Combining conventional QCA and semi-structured interviews, the thesis tests the hypothesis that monitoring in the field of minority protection is not directly tied to accession as the final outcome of the pre-accession process. Comparing the European Commission’s approach to monitoring in the field of minority protection in Croatia and Macedonia, the thesis demonstrates that in the absence of a clear monitoring framework, monitoring activities on the part of the EU are largely brought into play on an ad hoc basis, making accession a product of political compromise. Three crucial drawbacks are identified. Firstly, there is a profound lack of clarity of minority protection standards to which the candidate countries need to adhere. Secondly, inferior quality of both analysis and interpretation of indicator findings based on a random choice of issues, poorly justified conclusions, and vague recommendations is detected. Thirdly, and most strikingly, there is a stark unequal treatment of the candidate countries over time, casting doubt on the overall application of both conditionality and monitoring during the pre-accession process. |
| Supervisor | Jenne, Erin Kristin |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2012/stajikj_dalibor.pdf |
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