Regional Cooperation and European Integration in the Western Balkans

This work focuses on the pivotal role that regional cooperation policies, initially launched by the EU and later owned by the region, play in the stability and on the process of European integration for the Western Balkans countries. It aims to evaluate the functionality and effectiveness of these policies and to assess their impact on one particular country, Albania. The research question is the degree to which these regional cooperation policies have influenced on the development of domestic sectors in Albania. In order to empirically measure the results, three main indicators are taken into consideration and evaluated. This work suggests that the regional cooperation initiatives have brought positive outcomes and have developed many sectors in Albania, which the country alone could have not have achieved due to its limited size and economy. Cross-border trade, infrastructure, transport and free movement of persons are undeniably ameliorated in the case of Albania as a result of regional cooperation policies. The success of these policies is mainly to be observed on the creation of political consensus and stability for the whole region.