Continuous transition: The growing crisis in the western Balkans and the role of the EU

The Covid-19 crisis has put the western Balkans back on the agenda. The agreement of 18 May 2020 to provide a total of €500 billion in grants to EU countries in trouble - not loans, which is neither the German nor the northern European position with regard to the ‘communitisation of debt’ - was preceded by the ‘Zagreb Declaration’ of 6 May documenting the promise that the EU would fight the corona virus and its effects together with the countries of the western Balkans. This resulted in a package of €3.3bn being established, constituting emergency aid for the health sector and funds for social and economic consolidation. This has revitalised the stuck accession negotiations which had become stalled in 2019. This article, drawing on interviews carried out during a recent research trip to Serbia, seeks to question whether impending disruption between the western Balkans and the EU could be avoided given how the EU and other state actors have acted thus far, discussing such issues in the particular context of developments in Serbia and Kosovo and, reflecting from there, across the western Balkans.