Abstract
The chapter discusses the prospects of the integration of the Western Balkans into the EU since the fall of communism. The analysis focuses on mapping the ways of thinking and motivation of actors.
Chronologically, it is divided only to the extent necessary to give an idea on the social, economic and other contexts, into two main periods. The first one, around 1989-2000, brought various internal political upheavals, related in particular to the break-up of Yugoslavia.
In the second period, after the year 2000, the determining force gradually became the EU. The EU sought to influence the internal political situation in the Western Balkan countries through the membership offer.
The development of events was significantly marked by mutual misunderstanding of actors and misunderstanding of situations by actors. Actors often reacted late to situations and often resorted to simplistic stereotypes.
The resulting development was therefore largely accidental. Without understanding the thinking of actors, we cannot get to know why the Western Balkans have reached a state of affairs characterized by an unbalanced distribution of power and weak institutions to control the executive.