Serbia’s Energy Dilemma: Navigating Geopolitical Tensions, Russian Ownership, and the Path to Renewable Transition

This policy brief delves into the complex web of challenges plaguing Serbia’s energy sector, examining the combination of events during the winter of 2021-2022 that triggered the current crisis.

Geopolitics Begins at Home: Foreign Actors' Role in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Energy Sector

The complicated administrative and legal frameworks that allow corruption and clientelism to flourish in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) are obstacles to the country’s energy sector moving towards net-zero by 2050.

Energy in the Western Balkans

The Balkans in Europe Policy Advisory Group is conducting a comprehensive study on the geopolitics of the green energy transition in the Western Balkans. The study is based on desk research, several detailed case studies and an opinion poll conducted between March and April 2023 in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. This background paper presents initial findings from the research and sets up a foundation for the future development of the project.

Through the Labyrinth of Regional Cooperation: How to Make Sense of Regional Integration in the Western Balkans

In the absence of a breakthrough in the EU integration of the Western Balkan six, the EU has been innovative in finding ways to keep the countries of the region interested in pursuing reforms. These include strengthening regional integration via the Berlin Process. Meanwhile some Western Balkan countries have initiated a parallel regional integration process called Open Balkan. This policy brief analyses the scope, depth and limitations of regional integration in the Western Balkans, and considers whether it actually delivers the desired results or is rather a distraction from EU integration.

Strict, Fair and More Open Towards EU Enlargement!

Dutch Public Opinion on EU Membership of the Western Balkans In 2019, the Dutch parliament vetoed the start of EU accession negotiations with Albania.

Unleashing the Potential for Change through Social Movements and Civic Initiatives

The past decade in the Western Balkans has seen a proliferation of civic initiatives and protest. They have focused on a variety of issues, ranging from the destruction of urban space, environmental destruction, to corruption scandals, and even unresolved murders. Whereas their success has varied, they showed that many citizens in the region are deeply dissatisfied with the lack of accountability of the ruling regimes, and ready to actively engage in their societies. Local civic initiatives and new forms of civic engagement prove to be worthy of further attention for exploring democratization potentials in the region. With their focus on tangible and concrete issues affecting that are affecting the daily lives of citizens, they have a high mobilization potential and ability to cut across ethnic divides and enhance citizens’ sense of agency. Even with limited impact achieved or fast dissipation, they nevertheless create a new momentum in the public discourse and collective memory, from which the new opportunity structures emerge for future possible changes.

Outta Trust? (Post)-Pandemic Trust and Democratic Resilience in the Western Balkans

In the Western Balkans, issues linking trust and democracy acquire particular importance and urgency in the wake of the Covid crisis.

Geopolitically irrelevant in its ‘inner courtyard’?

The EU amidst third actors in the Western Balkans

Escaping the Transactional Trap: The way forward for EU Enlargement

This year’s BiEPAG public opinion poll suggests that citizens in the Western Balkan countries begin looking at the promise of a European future through pragmatic lenses.

Bouncing back: Completing the EU unification process

Recent progress in the case of the six Western Balkan countries accession to the European Union seems to be a case of one step forward and two steps back – or to use a soccer metaphor, the goal posts are always moving.

No longer voting for the devil you know? Why the Balkans’ collective action problem might be easier to break than we think

Authors: Tena Prelec and Jovana Marovic Recent electoral outcomes have challenged the notion that elections in the Balkans are not able to bring about change. How has the public responded? It is argued that, in spite of the manifest obstacles for challengers to prevail over incumbents, public opinion is contingent upon the recent experiences in each country. Once shown the way, besides long period of stasis (or even state capture), citizens start believing that change is possible. The findings of the brief indicate that, in relation to electoral participation, the ‘collective action’ problem in the Balkans – characterised as lack of confidence in the possibility of change, leading to disillusionment with the democratic process and individual unwillingness to act to bring about change – might not be as difficult to break as previous research had indicated.

The Suspicious Virus: Conspiracies and COVID19 in the Balkans

Sumnjivi virus: Zavere i COVID-19 na Balkanu

Virusi i dyshimtë: Konspiracionet dhe Covid-19 në Ballkan

Between a rock and a hard place: Public opinion and integration in the Western Balkans

Između čekića i nakovnja: Javno mnjenje i evropske integracije na Zapadnom Balkanu

Të gjendur mes dy zjarreve: Opinioni publik dhe integrimi evropian në Ballkanin Perëndimor

Zapadni Balkan u doba globalne pandemije

Les Balkans occidentaux au temps de la pandémie mondiale

Ballkani Perëndimor në Kohërat e Pandemisë Globale

The Western Balkans in Times of the Global Pandemic

The BiEPAG non-paper: Busting 10 myths about EU enlargement