The EU anti-corruption report and reflexive governance

Hoxhaj, Andi

doi:10.4324/9781315149721-4

Cited by 5 publications

(11 citation statements)

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“…So also is the courts' ability to "check" the system by indicting corrupt governing authorities. As reflected in France's 2019 veto of the opening of accession talks with Albania and North Macedonia, these shortcomings have debilitated the countries' democratic reforms and stalled their EU accession processes (Fagan and Kopecky 2017;Hoxhaj, 2019). In the pandemic context, the judicial systems of WB countries face a further decline in their ability to enforce EU accountability measures and to ensure fiscal transparency.…”

Section: Administrative and Judicial Capacit Ymentioning

confidence: 99%

The perils of succor: The European Union's financial role in the Western Balkans during COVID‐19

Shehaj

2020

European Policy Analysis

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The Western Balkans' response to the first wave of COVID‐19 was efficient and swift. The countries’ capacity to mitigate the crisis has been vastly facilitated by EU fiscal disbursements. The funds have enabled governments to implement health and economic policies that counteract the crisis' socioeconomic repercussions. In this article, I examine the temporal effects of EU conditionality on the health outcomes and democratic governance of Balkan states. Identifying three features of the domestic political context—government accountability, the strength of opposition parties, and judicial system effectiveness—I assess the likelihood of divergent effects of the funds on health and democratic outcomes. I argue that while beneficial in the short term, in the long run, the EU funds risk enabling state capture and inadvertently jeopardizing the Western Balkans' post‐pandemic democratic prospects. I empirically substantiate my argument by examining the relationship between prior EU allocations (Instrument for Pre‐Accession Assistance) and clientelism in WB states during 2007–2017.

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Section: Administrative and Judicial Capacit Ymentioning

confidence: 99%

The perils of succor: The European Union's financial role in the Western Balkans during COVID‐19

Shehaj

2020

European Policy Analysis

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“…For Albania 15 and North Macedonia, 16 the Commission proposed that the Member States grant the opening of accession talks with no further pre-conditions. Albania had to pass a comprehensive judicial reform with a view to strengthening the rule of law and making progress in complying with the Copenhagen criteria, which was adopted in June 2016, by changing more than one-third of its constitution as a major pre-condition to the opening of accession talks with the EU (Hoxhaj 2020 ) 17 . North Macedonia, in contrast, as a major pre-condition, had to resolve a three-decade-long dispute about its name with its neighbour Greece (Bechev 2019 ) 18 .…”

Section: The Latest Eu Enlargement Policy Developments In 2018–2020mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Let us consider Romania as an example, whose National Anti-corruption Directorate the EU has promoted as a success model for the Western Balkans to follow, where conviction rates are about 90 per cent; the country has, to date, indicted over 4,700 defendants since the Directorate was established in 2002 (Hoxhaj 2020 ). This includes jailing a prime minister, 18 ministers, and thousands of mid-level public officials and politicians on charges of corruption and abuse of public office.…”

Section: The 15 Pre-accession Conditions For Albaniamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As a result of the EU conditionalities and internal political pressure to make progress in opening accession talks with the EU, the Albanian Parliament appointed a special committee in November 2014, with a mandate to make proposals for the reform of the justice system in line with the EU conditionalities and the Copenhagen criteria. The committee had three tasks: (1) to provide an in-depth analysis of the function of the judiciary; (2) to outline the main objectives of the judicial reform; and (3) to propose amendments to the laws that will require changes in order to enable the implementation of the judicial reforms, especially the constitutional amendments in line with the EU conditionalities, which would allow Albania—on paper, at least—to open and close chapters of the acquis chapters 23 and 24, related to the rule of law and fundamental rights (Hoxhaj 2020 ).…”

Section: The Eu Rule Of Law Initiative and Policy Experimentation In mentioning

confidence: 99%

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The EU Rule of Law Initiative Towards the Western Balkans

Hoxhaj

2020

Hague J Rule Law

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The EU adopted a new enlargement strategy for the Western Balkans countries in 2018, provided a time frame for Serbia and Montenegro potentially to join the Union by 2025, and outlined the next steps for accession for Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and North Macedonia. In March 2020, the EU gave the green light to the opening of accession talks with North Macedonia and Albania, and also introduced a new reformed ‘accession talks’ framework. The strengthening of the rule of law, fighting corruption and organised crime are the cornerstones of the EU-Western Balkans strategy of 2018 and the new accession talks framework of 2020. This article examines the latest enlargement policy developments in 2018–2020 by conceptualising how the EU promotes the rule of law in the Western Balkans thorough its new enlargement policy package. Furthermore, the article offers an in-depth analysis of the case of Albania, where the EU has experimented with some of its latest enlargement-policy ideas in regard to the rule of law. The article also offers some proposals and insights on how the EU rule of law initiative of 2018 can be improved, in order to become more transformative in strengthening the rule of law in countries of the Western Balkans.

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“…As of April the 1 st 2020, there are five current candidate countries: Albania (AL), Montenegro (MN), North Macedonia (NM), Serbia (SR) and Turkey (TR), out of which two (AL and NM) have recently (March 25, 2020) achieved this status, 5 while one (TR) is, for quite a long time, in a standstill regarding its EU accession. 6 In the same time, starting from the second half of 2019, the EU is striving to define a new set of rules dedicated to the enlargement process; some of those rules are already known, while a number of important elements is still in a chiaroscuro, tore between the wish of encouragement, the reality of enlargement fatigue and the ever-present threat of a dead-end. In the following two chapters, this paper analyses those of the enlargement-related legal and regulatory principles that are already known (Chapter 2 -Section 1), and examines some of the major potential benefits and/or disadvantages of the changes those new principles would entail (Chapter 2 -Section 2).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a New Strategy for Eu Enlargement – Between the Wish for an Encouragement, the Reality of the Fatigue and the Threat of a Dead End

Ćemalović¹

2020

EU and Comparative Law Issues and Challenges Series

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European Union's (EU) enlargement policy is, for at least half a decade, facing a reality that, with quite some benevolence, could be defined as an orientation crisis, accompanied with a substantial lack of clarity and precision. The fact that, during the second half of 2019, both North Macedonia (NM) and Albania (AL) have not achieved the status of candidate countries was only a symptom-unfortunately not devoid of still unforeseeable internal political and economic consequences-of undeniable and profound discord between the EU member states over the future of the Union's enlargement policy. When it comes to the two countries of the Western Balkans-Serbia (SR) and Montenegro (MN)-that are already in the process of membership negotiation, their relatively poor progress in 2019-with either no further chapters provisionally closed (MN) or with only one chapter opened (SR)-only confirms the initial assessment about the fundamental crisis of this important EU policy. On the basis of scarce and mostly underdeveloped elements of the new enlargement methodology presented by the Commission in February 2020, this paper-using content analysis and scrutiny of negotiation-related polices of candidate countries-seeks to go beyond questions of conditionality and benchmarks, in order to examine some major consequences that this potentially new enlargement strategy could have. In spite of the fact that the focus of the analysis is put on some major changes the reorientation of this policy would entail, the author also examines (and, to some extent, predicts) what are the potential benefits and/or threats the new methodology could bring to both candidates and the EU itself. Without any pretention to provide final answers and apodictic conclusions, this paper proposes some elements of fine-tuning, in order to better define a potential change that encompasses the following three controversial elements: the wish for an encouragement, the reality of the fatigue and the threat of a dead end.

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The EU anti-corruption report and reflexive governance

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

The perils of succor: The European Union's financial role in the Western Balkans during COVID‐19

The perils of succor: The European Union's financial role in the Western Balkans during COVID‐19

The EU Rule of Law Initiative Towards the Western Balkans

Towards a New Strategy for Eu Enlargement – Between the Wish for an Encouragement, the Reality of the Fatigue and the Threat of a Dead End

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