Mainstreaming human rights through the enlargement policy: the case of the western balkan countries
| Autor | Gentjan Skara |
| Cargo del Autor | ?Bedër' University College - Albania |
| Páginas | 85-100 |
85
MAINSTREAMING HUMAN RIGHTSTHROUGH THE ENLARGEMENT POLICY: THE CASE...
MAINSTREAMING HUMAN RIGHTS THROUGH THE
ENLARGEMENT POLICY: THE CASE OF THE WESTERN
BALKAN COUNTRIES
GENTJAN SKARA
(‘Bedër’ University Colleg e - Albania)
1. INTRODUCTION
The EU Enlargement policy has been consid ered as the EU’s most efficient
foreign policy instrument in terms of its ability to transform communist countries
into functional democracies and open market countries. As shown in the case of
Central European Ea stern countries (CEECs), this policy has promot ed re gional
integrations and has had a significant effect on transforming the domestic structure
of coun tries that used to be part of Soviet Union, policies and society at large1.
Sinc e the beg inning o f 1990s , the EU h as incre asingl y empha sized th e
importance of human rights promotion wit h third countries. A growing body of
academic literature has been written on the incorporation of human rights clauses
in bilateral trade and cooperation agreement2 as well as association agreement in
the framew ork of the enlargement process3. Furthermore, after the adoption of the
Treaty of Maastricht and especially the birth of CFSP, researcher attention shifted
toward the role of the EU as a human rights actor 4 and its impact as a human rights
promoter in the Central Eastern Europe countries5.
The a rgume nt of th is prop osal is that th e EU enl argem ent pol icy ha s
contributed to the pro motion of human rig hts in the Western Balkan countr ies
(WBc). By using the EU cond itionality, the WBc have improved thei r domestic
legislati on and understanding in the ar ea of h uman rights. However, thi s « EU
1H. GRABBE, «Six lessons of enlargement ten years on: the EU’s transformative power in retrospect
and prospect», inJournal of Common Market Studies, 2004, pp 40-56; H. GRABBE, The EU’s Transformative
Power: Europeanization through Conditionality in Central and Eastern Europe, New York, 2006.
2K. ARTS, Integrating Human Rights into Development Cooperation: The Case of the Lombe Convention,
Netherlands, 2000; V. MILLER, The Human Rights Clause in the EU’s External Agreement, Londo n,
2004; L. BARTEL, Human Rights in the EU’s International Agreement, New York, 2005; L. BARTEL,
Human Rights and Democracy Clauses in the EU’s International Agreements , Brussel, 2005.
3E. FIERRO, The EU’s Approach to Human Rights Conditionality in Practice, The Hague, 2002.
4G. de BÚRCA, «The Road not taken: The European Union as a Global Human Rights Actor», in The
American Journal of International Law, 2011, pp. 649-693.
5M. ZO LKOS, «Bringing Human Rights in the Enlargement Politic s: the EU as a Human Rights
Promoter in the Central Eastern Europe», in https://journals.muni.cz/cepsr/article/view/4044/5283 .
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GENTJAN SKARA
transformative power» as coined by Young6, has been undermined to some extent
by WBc domestic cons traints such as: I) weakness of state structures or limited
stateh ood in certa in contexts ; II) low l evel of econo mic growth , high level o f
unemploy ment, informal econom y, trade deficits and slow li beralisation of the
market7; and III) ineffective law enforcement and high level of corruption8.
The paper seeks to analyze how, whether and to what extent, the EU has
mainstreamed the promotion of h uman rights in the Western Balkan countries. In
addressing the principal question, the paper considers the following sub-research
questions: How has the EU become a human rights actor? What are the main policies
that the EU has pursued with the WBc to promote human rights? To which extent
the EU has used its instruments in promoting human rights and whether these
instruments have been effective? And finally, wh at is the impact of the Charter of
the Fundamental Human on the enlargement process of Western Balkan countries?
The core methodology of this paper is that of traditional legal doctrine, which
is based on analyses and interpretation of the EU primary and secondary sources;
jurisprudence of CJEU and international agreement concluded by the EU and third
countries provisions. Additi onally, secondary sources such as book, journal and
website articles have been taken into consideration .
This paper is composed of this introduction and five secti ons. The second
sec tion pr ovide s an o vervie w of th e EEC/ EU act ornes s from an econ omic
organizatio n towa rd a huma n ri ghts p romoter; followed by third section which
rediscovers human rights issues beginning with the Maastricht Treaty and lately
with the Lisbon Treaty which gave to the Charter of Fundamental Rights a legal
value (third section). The fourth section analyses the Stabilisation and Association
Process as a n integration mechanism for promotion of human rights in WBc and
discusses main instruments used by the EU to promote human rights. The fifth
section descri bes the impact of the Charter of Fundamental Rights in the WBc.
2. FROM AN ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION TOWARD A HUMAN RIGHT
PROMOTER
The status of the human rights in the EU legal system has changed gradually.
The European Coal and Steel Community Treaty (ECSC Treaty) established in 1952,
did no t contain an y provisio n concern ing human r ights. Suc h exclusio n was
understandable due to Treaty nature which were devoted to coal and steel production.
As 6 founding members of ECSC treaty preceded with the signature of European
Defence Community (EDC) Treaty, it was necessary to have as well a Treaty for
political controls of the what to be established « European army». Recognising this
fact, Art 38 of EDC Treaty called for the creation of an Assembly ‘elected on a
democratic basi s’ to com plement the EDC Treaty provisions 9. On 10 September
1952, the Foreign Min isters for Foreign Affairs of the ECSC decided to ask the
6R. YOUNGS, « Engaging: sha rpening Europe an influen ce. In New terms of engage ment», in R
YOUNG (ed), Global Europe Report 2: New Terms of Engagement, London, 2004, p. 5.
7The World Bank and WIIW, «Western Balkans Labor Market Trends 2020», in SEE Jobs Gateway, pp.
13-15.
8B. HAJDINI and G. Skara, «Lost in I mplementatio n: EU Law Applic ation in Alba nian L egal
System», in Journal of Legal Studies, 20017, pp. 54-59; D. LINOTTE, «Corruption in the Balkans and
EU Mem bership», in https://biepag.eu/corrupt ion-in-the-balkans-and-eu-membership /.
9B. KARP, «The Draft Constitution for a European Political Community», inI nternational Organization,
1954, pp. 181-202.
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