BREXIT IMPLICATIONS FOR THE FUTURE ENLARGMEMENT OF THE WESTERN BALKANS

Abstract

Most of the analyses are performed in order to find the impact of EU membership on trade relations and economic impact for the member states. In contrary the BREXIT is the first case to discus and predict the exit process. In this paper we will try to analyse the BREXIT with regard to enlargement impact for the Western Balkans.

The main question to be addressed is: the lack of political support of Britain for the EU enlargement of the Western Balkans, second issue is trade and economic issues; third issue is probability of decrease of EU programmes for Western Balkans due to withdraw of Britain and their contribution for the EU budget.

Another important issue to be tackled is the Negotiation Process. Assuming that Britain cannot negotiate optimally with EU, therefore this option could impose long term negotiations therefore the main focus of the European Union will be directed to the BREXIT process compare to Western Balkans enlargement. In order to have the empirical results about the expectations of respondents about the future prospects of the European Union in the Western Balkans, we employed a survey involving 400 respondents mainly academics working on EU affairs and other stakeholders.

Based on the statistical indicators, as well as the survey results we can conclude that the people in the Western Balkans still believe in the Europen Project despite the BREXIT and other challenges.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.eis.0.11.18125