Garčević Discusses EU Enlargement and Regional Challenges for Western Balkans
On December 7, 2022, Ambassador Vesko Garčević, Professor of the Practice of International Relations at Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, along with BU Professor Vladimir Petrović took part in a panel discussion about the current security and political development in the Western Balkans.
The panel, titled “Are the Western Balkans Heading Toward Another Storm?” was hosted by the Institute of Eastern Mediterranean Studies at Emmanuel College, where Garčević is the Ambassador in Residence. The speakers explored the regional challenges in cooperation with the European Union (EU) highlighting that the rise of nationalism and xenophobia in the Western Balkans, regional instability further exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, and the lack of political commitment by Brussels questions the EU membership perspective of the Balkan countries. In addition, the increased engagement of Russia and China in the Western Balkans appears to be outflanking the EU at every turn.
Garčević argued that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was a moment for the EU to radically re-evaluate its neighborhood policy and jumped-start its stagnant enlargement process. He proposed that Brussels develop a multi-step EU integration process, creating intermediate goals before the full inclusion into the Union, which would offer aspirants greater flexibility while not compromising the EU’s criteria in the key areas – rule of law, democratization, and home affairs.
During his diplomatic career, Ambassador Vesko Garčević dealt with issues pertinent to European security and NATO for almost 14 years. In 2004, he was posted in Vienna to serve as Ambassador to Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. He had been Montenegro’s Ambassador to NATO from 2010 until 2014 and served as Montenegro’s National Coordinator for NATO from 2015 until he joined the faculty at the Pardee School. Learn more about Ambassador Garčević on his faculty profile.