IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ris/utmsje/022229.html

North Macedonia In The Western Balkans: Between Regional And European Integration

Author

Listed:
  • Goran Kitevski

    (Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Institute of geography Skopje;)

  • Katerina Mijalova

    (Halk Insurance AD Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia)

Abstract

The main subject of the study is the position of North Macedonia within the European Union (EU) enlargement framework and the geopolitical configuration of the Western Balkans, conceptualised not as a geographic entity but as a political category defined by non-membership. Although designated a candidate state in 2005 and formally approved for accession negotiations in 2020, North Macedonia remains the most protracted accession case in the region. The Western Balkans, initially incorporated into the EU enlargement agenda through the Stabilisation and Association Process, remain institutionally framed as a transitional space expected to converge with the Union. While the 2003 Thessaloniki Summit affirmed the region’s membership perspective, post-Thessaloniki developments were marked by procedural revision, enlargement fatigue, and (geo)political recalibration. Comparative analysis of the Commission’s 2025 reports confirm that North Macedonia is not substantially lagging in acquis alignment relative to Albania and other WB6 countries, but remains constrained by unresolved identity-based conditions.

Suggested Citation

  • Goran Kitevski & Katerina Mijalova, 2025. "North Macedonia In The Western Balkans: Between Regional And European Integration," UTMS Journal of Economics, University of Tourism and Management, Skopje, Macedonia, vol. 16(2), pages 241-250, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:utmsje:022229
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://utmsjoe.mk/files/Vol.16.No.2/9.NORTH-MACEDONIA-IN-THE-WESTERN-BALKANS-BETWEEN-REGIONAL-AND-EUROPEAN-INTEGRATION.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration
    • F55 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - International Institutional Arrangements

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ris:utmsje:022229. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Assistant Professor. Dejan Nakovski, PhD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/feutmmk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.