| Abstract [eng] |
European Commission highlighted the importance of North Macedonia‘s and Albania‘s accession to the EU and numerous times recommended the opening of accession negotiations. However, during the past two years, France and Bulgaria vetoed these negotiations. According to France’s president E. Macron, North Macedonia and Albania are not ready to open the negotiations. In addition, the EU is not ready to take in any new members. Bulgaria’s position affects only reasons concerning bilateral relations with North Macedonia such as the inability to solve cultural and historical disputes. In this Master thesis, two theoretical frameworks were used. First, Frank Schimmelfennig’s mechanism for measuring the EU's absorption capacity. Second, the postfunctionalism theory by Liesbet Hooghe and Gary Marks. The research question is why France and Bulgaria during the past two years obstructed the EU‘s enlargement process? The object is reasons behind the veto against the opening of EU accession negotiations with Western Balkans. The aim of this Master thesis is to discover reasons behind EU‘s countries' vetoes against the opening of EU accession negotiations with the Western Balkans using Europe‘s integration and disintegration theories. The objectives are as follows: - To examine main theories regarding Europe’s integration and disintegration which present variables explaining possible reasons of the obstruction of the EU’s enlargement process; - To review academic literature concerning EU‘s enlargement mechanism; - To analyse the main EU‘s veto players‘ (France and Bulgaria) and Western Balkan states‘ (North Macedonia and Albania) actions; - To explain France‘s and Bulgaria‘s vetoes based on theoretical assumptions. Two hypotheses are formulated: First, veto was used as a result of an existing fear of possible slowed down decision making and ineffectiveness of the EU after enlargement. The hypothesis was formed by looking at the EU’s integration capacity. Second, veto was used because of fear of negative consequences to internal policy caused by EU enlargement. This hypothesis was established by analysing postfunctionalist theory. It is concluded that: The first hypothesis was not confirmed because of EU’s internal integration capacity. However, Albania and North Macedonia are not ready to join the EU yet but the start of the accession negotiations may be additional stimulus to carry out reforms necessary for accession. The second hypothesis was confirmed. It was revealed that veto might help the presidential campaign of E. Macron considering that the French are against further enlargement because of the fear of a new immigration wave. In Bulgaria’s case Bulgarians are against North Macedonia joining the EU before the cultural disputes are settled. Even though Bulgaria’s government was one of the main supporters of the further enlargement to the Western Balkans, it decided to veto the accession negotiations. Bulgaria’s ruling party’s ratings were plummeting after corruption scandals and veto was used to get more support from the people of Bulgaria especially before the parliamentary election. The main drawback of this Master thesis lack of Denmark’s and Netherland’s vetoes’ analysis. This could be further researched in the future because it was discovered that internal policy of EU’s members is highly important while discussing EU’s enlargement process. |
