Bledar Feta wrote an article for the Bled Strategic Times, the official gazette of the Bled Strategic Forum that will take place in Slovenia on 28-29 August 2023. The Bled Strategic Times provides prominent political leaders, thinkers, business representatives and academics to express their views on various topics and challenges.
In his article on the strategic competition between the different players currently jockeying for influence in the Western Balkans, Bledar Feta underlines that “The systematic effort of other powers to influence developments in the region at the expense of the EU is deeply troubling for Brussels. Several member states are aware of the challenges any further penetration of other actors could bring to the region’s balance of power. As such, enlargement is taking on a new dimension”. Feta argues that “This change in the enlargement context should not only rely on geopolitical considerations and terms of stabilitocracy”. Rather, “The EU should address the flaws in the design and implementation of its enlargement policy so that its democratization and rule-of-law objectives are more effectively pursued. Delays in the integration process and the lack of a realistic roadmap for convergence between the Western Balkans and the EU are creating a space for action by other forces and actors”.
You can read the full article here, page 27.
