Prior to 2018, the standard talking point for most Western governments toward the Balkans was fully consistent with the ideal of a Europe “whole, free, and at peace:” that no further pursuit of border changes or ethnoterritorialism would be permitted. Equality of citizens and acceptance of the historical reality of multiethnicity throughout the Western Balkans was presented not only as a prerequisite to Euro-Atlantic integration, but a requirement for maintenance of peace and
comprehensive security after a series of wars left over 130,000 people dead in the span of a decade.
For well over a decade before 2018, the West’s policies in the region remained on bureaucratic autopilot – formally committed to Copenhagen criteria and liberal democratic values and standards, but increasingly distracted and defaulting to formalism and transactionalism with local elites. This zombie policy allowed NATO and EU enlargement without true resolution of outstanding disputes with neighbors. This error was raised at the time – and its effects can be seen now.
An inherently polarizing national authoritarian populism reminiscent of that seen in the former Yugoslavia beginning in the late 1980s became increasingly apparent among a number of EU member states and in the US with the election of Donald Trump. This cocktail of factors accelerated
the negative trajectory of democracy in the Western Balkans. The only positive in this period – a breakthrough, now largely squandered in North Macedonia – came not because of the West’s policy, but despite it. Popular pressure forced the EU and US off the fence to compel Gruevski to new elections, then to accede to the results.
link to a full Letter: Open Letter to EU, US, and NATO Governments: