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14 Eur. Foreign Aff. Rev. 89 (2009)
Path Dependency in EU Enlargement: Macedonia's Candidate Status from a Historical Institutionalist Perspective

handle is hein.kluwer/eurofa0014 and id is 91 raw text is: European Foreign Affairs Review 14: 89-112, 2009. © 2009 Kluwer Law International B V Path Dependency in EU Enlargement: Macedonia's Candidate Status from a Historical Institutionalist Perspective JESSICA GIANDOMENICO* Abstract. This article argues that EU enlargement policy and actions within that field are guided by the logic of path dependency. By studying the decision to confer candidate status on Macedonia in 2005, which was granted despite important shortcomings regarding democracy and rule of law, we can reveal key aspects of the decision-making process regarding the enlargement policy. The Macedonian crisis in 2001 was instrumental in shaping EU enlargement policy as a foreign policy tool to promote peace and stability in the Western Balkans. The peace agreement that ended the conflict, in turn, became an important reference for measuring reform progress in Macedonia. The enlargement policy thus became locked in a path-dependent pattern, where the implementation of the peace agreement from 2001 has become very important. The strong commitments by the EU towards Macedonia are identified as a particularly strong mechanism influencing the path dependent pattern. Where other influential theories cannot explain contradictions between EU Member State voting and preferences, or ignorance of democratic shortcomings, historical institutionalism offers tools to make such theoretical inconsistencies intelligible. I Introduction Macedonia1 became an EU candidate country in 2005, but was not invited to open negotiations on membership. While the candidate status was a recognition of important progress, especially regarding the inter-ethnic situation, the absence of membership negotiations reflects some serious shortcomings that raise doubts on the preparedness of Macedonia's ability to conduct such negotiations. This situation portrays the particularities of Macedonia's modern history. It has been regarded as a Balkan success story: the first country to conclude a Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) in 2001, and the third republic of the Former Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia to achieve candidate status (after Slovenia, which became a Member State in 2004, and Croatia, which is negotiating at the time of writing). All this despite the crisis in 2001, which brought the country to the brink of civil war and brought PhD candidate and Tutor at the Department of Eurasian Studies, Uppsala University, Sweden. The official name of the republic, Republic of Macedonia, is disputed, where Greece does not recognize its constitutional name. Internationally, the republic is recognized with the name The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). The name Macedonia will be used throughout this article. Copyright 2007 by Kluwer Law International. All rights reserved No claim asserted to original government works.

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