“From candidacy to membership: Comparative analysis of the EU political conditionality for Ukraine and Western Balkan countries“

This research offers a comparative analysis of the EU’s conditionality for the countries currently heading towards the EU membership – Ukraine and countries of the Western Balkans.

The application of the political conditionality for the CEU countries in the course of the Enlargement of 2004 was recognized as a success story. However, its further application was much less successful. The Balkan countries have always been one of the major focuses for EU foreign policy, with two countries (Croatia and Slovenia) having managed to become part of the EU and others currently being at different stages of the integration process.

Although the countries of Western Balkans and Ukraine were communist in the past, there is a number of differences between the countries from the perspective of political, social, and legal systems. Thus, the foci of the EU’s conditionality have been rather diverse. There is also a certain difference in terms of the implementation of the conditionality as well as in the outcomes.