Research Seminar: The Europeanization of the Western Balkans

Conference venue: School of International Studies - Trento, Italy
Period: March 26-27, 2014

European integration is almost recognized universally as the key strategy for achieving peace, stability and prosperity for the all States in the Western Balkans.
However, the concrete perspective of accession to the EU appears to be far away in the future, due to the consequences of the economic and financial crisis as well as enlargement fatigue on the side of the EU and to slow or no progress in some (potential) candidate States.
Positive developments, such as the Visa-Liberalisation as well as the Belgrade-Pristina-Agreement, and negative ones, such as the recent violent protests in Bosnia and Herzegovina raise the question of the sustainability of a long waiting room-period. Which incentives for change can be used?

Wednesday 26 March
17:00-18:30  - From "Brotherhood and Unity" to "United in Diversity"?
Seminar Opening
Expectations, Foundations and Reality. The current situation in the Western Balkans
Luisa Chiodi, Director, Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso, Rovereto
Reading the Balkan ‘borderscapes’ in the post-1989 political and cultural discourses
Ivana Trkulja, Associated researcher FP7 'Euborderscapes'

Thursday 26 March
09:00-10:30  Between Europeanization and Conditionality: The EU Integration of the Western Balkans
Chair Roberto Belloni, Dept. of Sociology, University of Trento
Europeanization travels to the Western Balkans: enlargement, domestic obstacles and diverging reforms
Arolda Elbasani, Jean Monnet Fellow, Robert Schuman Center, EUI
The Politics of EU Enlargement Revisited. What conditions matter in the EU’s South-Eastern enlargement?
Dorian Jano, Lecturer, Marin Barleti University, Tirana
Building Member States. The EU strategies towards contested candidate countries
Davide Denti, PhD candidate, School of International Studies, Univ. of Trento

11:00-12:30 Sovereignty, the Rule of Law and the Role of Courts in the accession process
Chair Jens Woelk, School of International Studies/Law Faculty, University of Trento
Viewers should not try this at home: Constitutional Courts in Bosnia and Kosovo
Stefan Graziadei, PhD candidate, University of Graz
A Critique of Kosovo’s Internationalized Constitutional Court
Andrea Lorenzo Capussela, former Head of Economics Unit, ICO Kosovo
The unbearable lightness of Europeanization: extradition policies and the erosion of sovereignty in the post-Yugoslav states
Jelena Dzankić, EUI Marie-Curie Fellow, EUI

12:30-13:30 The Western Balkans in the Waiting Room: Perspectives?
Round Table
Roberto Belloni, Dept. of Sociology, University of Trento
Michele Chiaruzzi, CERPIC FBK Trento, Univ. Of Bologna
Jens Woelk, School of International Studies/Law Faculty, University of Trento

PhD Programme in International Studies, School of International Studies
Tommaso Gar, 14 I-38122 Trento, Italy
tel. +39 0461 283150
fax +39 0461 283152
e-mail: phd@sis.unitn.it