Enlargement of the European Union in the Western Balkans and Russia's Geopolitics in the Region

AuthorAngela-Mihaela Ene
PositionSenior Lecturer, PhD, Danubius University of Galati, Romania
Pages328-333
European Integration - Realities and Perspectives. Proceedings 2019
328
Enlargement of the European Union
in the Western Balkans and Russia's Geopolitics in the Region
Angela-Mihaela Ene1
Abstract: The European construction at the level of establishing an economic, political, social and cultural
unity between its constituent states and those which are to complete it,represent the ultimate vision of a united
and solid Europe, designed to generate welfare and security for all its members. Our approach attempts to reveal
the functionality and substance of the Union's enlargement objectives in the area, generically called the Western
Balkans. These goals, which have recently been translated into a strategy, will be achieved in 2025 for Serbia
and Montenegro and for the other countries in a more distant future. Obviously, the European Union is not the
only geopolitical player in the area and, certainly, the proposed objectives are directly or indirectly li nked to
Russia's regional geopolitical strategy. Thus, we show that in this enlargement process we are already in the
collision phase of the two macrostates, the European Union and Russia, state entities which have so far prepared
strategies of influence and have also undertaken approaches of strategic anchoring in the Balkan region. The
present paper focuses on the geopolitics of the two powers, which is already in progress and produces effects
in the Balkan bloc. Given that the Balkan bloc is more a strategic security area t han an economic pulse, the
centering of the two forces will materialize according to the interests of security and socio-political stability. It
is to bementioned that the European Union will usually bet on the strengths of the six Balk an bloc states and
Russia on their weaknesses, even more, on the Union's cumbersome response mechanism. If Serbia and
Montenegro have a horizon in 2025, Northern Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo will
remain in this dispute for a longer period of time.
Keywords: European Union; Russia; the Balkan bloc; strategy; Serbia; Montenegro; Albania; North
Macedonia; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Kosovo
Introduction
At this point, the world scene is clearly configured in terms of the power exercised and constituted by
the great powers, the struggle going only to consolidate these elements and possibly to seize new areas
of influence that would only have a defensive role. Therefore, we know that the West maintains the
same mechanism of external action and the East and Asian powers count on a strategic and operational
flexibility that has often proved to be more effective in strategic geopolitics.
In this global and especially regional context, the European Union wants to be an inter-state macro-
entity that dictates and develops a socio-political concept that has the role of coagulating nations and
stimulating a form of cohabitation based on sustainable criteria from the perspective of the individual to
the social and cultural macrogrup.
1 Senior Lecturer, PhD, Danubius University of Galati, Romania, Address: 3 Galati Blvd., Galati, 800654, Romania, Tel.:
+40372361102, Corresponding author: angelamihaela.ene@univ-danubius.ro.

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