L'allargamento dell'Unione europea verso i Balcani occidentali. Stabilità politica della regione oltre i criteri di Copenaghen?

The integration prospective of the Western Balkans area in the European Union seems to be so uncertain. The logic of regional integration of the whole area, initially sustained by different EU countries for different reasons, is becoming increasingly weak in front of the objective impossibility to conciliate such possibility with the progress of the reforms on the rule of law and democracy in the concerned countries. After eighteen years from the start of the Process of Stabilisation and Association (SAP) the Balkan countries appear to be unsure about a precise date of adhesion in the EU. Legal and admissibility criteria that, as shown by the “Berlin process”, are not sufficient to complete the adhesion procedure. In fact, the creation of a regional economic and job market, a sort of area of free exchange in terms of pre-condition before joining the EU, is a criteria not sanctioned in any legal instrument provided for in the procedures of adhesion in the EU. Beyond the substantial results achieved in terms of economic and infrastructural investments produced by the “Berlin process”, the lack of a clear prospective of integration of these countries in the EU – obviously, based exclusively on the satisfaction of the Copenhagen criteria and those sanctioned by art. 2 of the Treaty of Lisbon – gives the impression of a confused European Union that continues to change criteria and game rules in progress. This article examines the whole integration process of the Western Balkan countries through the analyse of the reasons which have contributed to the slowing down of this process.