Media Analyses of Political Crisis and the Enlargement Policy of the European Union: Impact on European Integration Processes in Macedonia

• • 
  • Presentation speakers
    • Liljana Siljanovska, South East European University, Tetovo

  Abstract:

  European scenario for the Macedonian case is completed with the meeting of the European Council in December 2014, without discussions of the sixth European Commission recommendation to open accession negotiations to the European Union without the issue of the Greek blockade. In March 2016, Macedonia received the seventh recommendation conditional on the successful completion of the political crisis and early legislative elections. The expansion of the Western Balkans remains on the European agenda as a political commitment to the enlargement policy of the Union, whose general course of action in the coming years that will not admit new members until 2020. The debate on the economic issues such as increasing competitiveness for economic growth in the EU countries and the reduction of unemployment remains focal. Foreign policy issues related to Russia and Ukraine express only a partial approach in the implementation of certain policies of the European Union in the potential candidate countries towards EU integration processes. Duality of the approach to address outstanding issues and individual EU policies and the ambivalent access to the political criteria for accession of new countries leads to treating certain candidate countries such as the Republic of Macedonia, in academic open debates on political redefinition of the Union on the issue of rational, pragmatic application of the philosophy of expanding into the real policy of expansion. Through the analysis of media content, interviews with academics and experts in the European integration processes, this research assesses and confirms the thesis that the institutional and political crisis in the EU mediated by the unresolved Greek blockade affects the integration processes of Macedonia, or the agreement on a date for starting negotiations for accession to membership.

 

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