Description
The region of the Western Balkans has been characterized by economic backwardness, nationalist antagonism, and contested statehood. These features are considered as impediments to complex transformation. The asymmetrical and rule-based process of Europeanisation has been less effective in transforming the Western Balkans’ polities. The shift of the EU’s mode of governance to a flexible external governance of the region is the critical juncture of a radically different interaction between Europe and its periphery. The Berlin Process initiative constitutes this shift. The paper addresses the question how EU political strategies of region-building interact with domestic local elite that have an agency role in the complex transformation? The institutionalisation of region-building through the Berlin Process provides the context for assessing the interaction between external norm diffusion, practices of legitimate statehood, and the modernising policy goals of local elites. Based on the case-study of Albania, using process-tracing and critical discourse analysis, this paper argues that the interaction contexts and transnational integration regimes are the driving forces of region-building. A key finding of the paper is that Europe, with the shift in the mode of governance becomes less authoritative and used as a bricolage by local elites of the region.
