VIENNA—Enlargement of the European Union is a hard sell these days. The member states have turned their gaze inwards as they confront a protracted period of low or no economic growth, not to mention the unfolding migration crisis. Nonetheless, leaders of the EU and Western Balkans states met again last week in Vienna as part of the “Berlin Process” launched by German Chancellor Angela Merkel last August in an effort to reinvigorate the enlargement process in the EU’s geographic inner courtyard. And reinvigorate it they must. Merkel said in 2011, “If the euro fails, Europe fails.” Similarly, if enlargement, heralded …read more
Europe’s Soft-Power Pull is Still Working, if Unevenly, in the Western Balkans
