EU membership criteria have been formulated in the so-called Copenhagen Criteria, constituting key political, economic, and administrative and institutional requirements for aspiring EU members see textbox below. This criterion stems from the above-mentioned objectives of fostering peace and stability in the Western Balkans, but also serves to ensure that the EU does not import outstanding bilateral conflicts when accepting new members.
The core objectives of the EU towards the WB region are thus to foster peace, stability, democracy and the rule of law, and to ensure alignment with all norms, values and legislation of the EU through legal approximation. The EU pursues an all-encompassing approach, employing its full policy toolbox, including many elements of EU internal policies, in its attempt to draw the region closer. When assessing EU objectives towards the Western Balkans, the EU tries to diffuse its values both for normative and self-interested reasons.
Arguably, there can be some degree of tension between the EU objectives of stability and democratisation in the WB6 as a longer-term process. A heavy emphasis on regional stability in the short term could lead to a weak, inconsistent application of EU conditionality that strengthens autocratic governments at the cost of democratic forces in the WB6. The Chinese business-first approach, revolving mainly around objectives of economic investment and development, can by no means be compared to the scope, depth and level of ambition of what the EU seeks to accomplish in the region.
Boosting physical connectivity through infrastructure development is moreover not only a Chinese affair. The EU itself has a connectivity strategy for third countries, including the WB6, and it finances infrastructure development through its pre-accession funds and the European Investment Bank in order to spur economic convergence of the region with the EU.
The EU may hence benefit from increased Chinese investments in the Western Balkans, especially as the region is in need of large amounts of external financing to catch up economically with the EU, something the WB6 need to do to a considerable degree before acceding to the EU.
