The Western Balkans: The EU Border Outsourcing Process and Its Impact on the Balkan Region

Abstract

: During the so-called refugee crisis of 2015 and 2016, the European Union launched a strategy to contain migration flows based on three main pillars: securitization, externalization and criminalization of help. In this paper, we will focus on the externalization or border outsourcing to third countries, particularly towards the Western Balkans. The implementation of the Action Plan approved by the EU and the countries of the region, together with different reforms on the asylum and refugees’ rules and regulations in some EU countries, as well as the enlargement of the Safe Countries list towards the Western Balkans countries and Turkey, has had an impact in the region. Issues such as how the humanitarian crisis has impacted the Western Balkans countries or changes in the conditionality demands towards these countries based on cooperation on the outsourcing process will be addressed. Our main point of departure is that more attention towards this region has been paid by the EU due to the so-called refugee crisis, and the commitments agreed among Brussels and the Western Balkans countries to deal with it have had more importance to the EU than the progress achieved by these countries. On the other hand, we will state that the Western Balkans have been used as a buffer to contain migration flows under the excuse of the conditionality principle. Both facts have had an impact on the region in two main aspects. The first one, is related to the human mobility of Balkan citizens towards the EU countries, with or without visa liberalization. Second, by affecting regional cooperation and trust among these countries and other Balkans countries already in the EU. Our main conclusion is that the security and stability strategy implemented by the EU in the Western Balkans countries has led to a backstop in the democratic reforms of these countries, together with a loss of influence and presence perception of the EU in the region in favor of other actors less demanding in terms of protection of the rule of law, pluralism or democratization.