EU INTEGRATION PROCESS OF BOSNIA HERSEGOVINA: A CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

As one of the Western Balkan countries Bosnia-Hersegovina had the first official contact with the EU immediately after its recognition as the sovereign and independent state on April 1992 by the Union. Nevertheless, some structural and institutional problems arisen from the Dayton Peace Agreement halting the war hadbeen signed on December 1995 made the EU integration process more complex and complicated for Bosnia-Hersegovina. Under these circumstances, Dayton Peace Agreement created a state which was lack of executive and bureaucratic structurewhich will represent the whole country and intermixed decision-making bodies/assets which will proceed the relations with EU. This study aims to elaborate the EU-Bosnia-Hersegovina relations within the framework of Western Balkans.For this target, the strategies, policies, dynamics, actors and instruments of the EU used for the sake of removing the problems during this process will be explained inthe first stage, the historical evolution, turning points and theoretical perspective ofthe relations will be summarized secondly and lastly, the critical analysis of therecent developments and futuristic perspective of these relations will be discussed with socio-political aspects as well as with the different perception of the parties concerned with this process.