While the question of whether, or how and under what conditions, the EU could promote democratization and liberalizing reforms in its broader geographic neighbourhood remains an important part of scholarly discussions on the scope and limits of EU foreign policy, the positive impact of EU enlargement conditionality on post-communist democratization is an indisputable historical fact that has been recognized in a large body of scholarship. Nevertheless, more than a decade after the EU officially offered the opportunity for accession and a potential “EU future” to the post-communist countries of the Western Balkans, the level of consolidation of democratic institutions and general socio-political stability achieved in these countries can hardly be considered satisfactory. The level of corruption, respect for the rule of law, freedom of the media and general indicators of achieved democratization in the Western Balkan states – including Croatia, which has been an EU member since 2013 – are still significantly behind those achieved in the post-communist states which joined the EU in 2004 and 2007. Indeed in some countries, particularly in Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina they show a clear tendency of worsening.
Not denying the impacts of some domestic factors, this paper argues that the main reasons for the insufficient impact of the EU accession process on the post-communist democratization of the Western Balkan states are primarily related to the lack of real interest among the core EU member states in further accessions after the emergence of enlargement fatigue in the mid-2000s. Consequently, the tougher accession conditions adopted for the Western Balkan states have proven to be rather arbitrary and inconsistent to those which were used in the 2004/07 enlargement round while the EU assistance offered for meeting these additional conditions has been inadequate and insufficient to support consolidation of democracy in these countries.
