Multi-Speed Balkans: Positioning the Balkans in Multi-Speed Europe

Nikola Lj. Ilievski and Goran Ilik

This chapter addresses the perspective of the European Union as a Multi-Speed Europe, in which in a Balkan context, member states participate in common policies and choose the ones they are (or are not) willing and able to participate in. The integration experience witnesses a Multi-speed approach to European integration, as may be demonstrated in the cases of the European Monetary Union and the Schengen Agreement, in which not all the member states participate. The goal of this paper is to apply the Multi-speed model within the Balkan states – in the concrete cases of Macedonia, Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro, within the circles of integration, and in the process of European integration in general, thereby creating a model of Multi-Speed Balkans.