Conference Paper

Being torn by bloody conflicts, open bilateral issues and poor economic development, the Western Balkan countries re-opened the Pandora’s Box in recent years by pushing the stalemate position to the verge of new conflicts. This triggered the initiative of the Federal Republic of Germany to create the so-called “Berlin process”, as a political process that would complement the European integration process, aimed at producing a framework for mutual reconciliation between the Western Balkan states through regional cooperation, youth cooperation, economic development, and infrastructural networking. The process closely follows the Franco-German model of reconciliation introduced after the Second World War and includes Macedonia, Serbia, Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The states have been supported by Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Croatia and Slovenia with a four year platform framework from 2014 to 2018. By introducing the intergovernmental model through organizing annual summits where executives from the aforementioned states report on the progress made in the envisaged reforms, the format gives hope that the process will show visible results and will not be yet another Stability Pact for Southeastern Europe. The unanimously renewed and reaffirmed European perspective to these countries, while acknowledging the individual reforms of each state in the integration process represents a two-sided strategic investment in peace, democracy and stability on the European continent. This chapter analyses the different stages of development and progress made on individual aspects of the Berlin process, to conclude whether its creation shows signs of sustainability and whether or not the chosen areas for project implementation justify its existence.