COST Action ENTER Working Paper NO. 6 / February 2022 – “Implicit” contestations of EU foreign policy norm- domestication in Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia by Jasmin Hasić, Nedžma Džananović & Lejla Ramić Mesihović
This article focuses on scrutinizing EU’s norm-setting practices toward the Western Balkan (WB6) countries through identifying particular points of norm-acceleration and norm-resistance related to EU’ foreign policy and enlargement objectives in developing “good neighborly relations” (GNR) regionally. Although the EU has repeatedly attempted to diffuse its foreign policy and enlargement-related norms to promote regional stability, development and cooperative relations across the WB6 countries, we posit that two policies are not always complimentary and that domestication of these norms in some countries still remains nationally contextualized and guided by specific dynamics. This article explores the factors that promote or mitigate the domestication of EU-induced norms in two selected countries, Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia. By examining these two cases separately, we argue the current norm domestication patterns in both countries stave off these “coded” EU-induced normative perspectives on GNR, mainly because of their strong mixture with the “noncodified” enlargement criteria.
Disclaimer:
This is a reprint of an article originally published in the special issue “Contestation of European Union foreign policy: causes, modes and effects” of Global Affairs 6:4-5, edited by Franziska Petri, Elodie Thevenin & Lina Liedlbauer, DOI: 10.1080/23340460.2021.1897952.
