Cooperation between the Six Western Balkans Countries (WB6) and the European Union Fundamental Rights Agency

In March 2020, the Council of the European Union (EU) formally endorsed the proposal of the European Commission (EC) for a new enlargement methodology that would henceforth be applied for countries interested to become EU Member States (MSs). Thus, for the six countries of the Western Balkans (WB6) that are in their EU accession paths and for other accession countries, this marked the introduction of the new, enhanced methodology to join the EU. Gradual integration, or phased accession, is one of the pillars of this new methodology. As an approach, this pillar allows the EU to support the WB6 countries in reaching EU standards by granting them access to its specialised mechanisms in specific policy areas, in parallel with reforms they implement.

In practice, this means enabling WB6 countries’ institutions and other stakeholders dealing with specific policy areas to engage directly with their peers in the EU in an institutional learning process. EU agencies and other policy organisations and structures are typical such mechanisms. They are specialised EU-level institutions or bodies that drive – together with the EC (which also conducts membership negotiations with WB6 countries) – the development of the EU acquis in their policy areas driven by policy expertise. As such, they would play a critical role in guiding and supporting WB6 countries’ institutions in their reforms to align with the EU acquis and European standards and to implement the legislation aligned.

In this context, the Kosovar Centre for Security Studies is, for several years now, the leading civil society organisation working on phased accession of WB6 to the EU. We have been doing this through extensive policy research, as well as by engaging in advocacy and promoting and facilitating policy dialogue across the region and with EU actors on these topics, in cooperation with COSs in other WB6 countries. The main purpose of this engagement is to explore possibilities of accelerating cooperation between WB6 relevant stakeholders with such EU bodies, and gradual inclusion in them.

The main purpose of this policy brief is to inform key stakeholders in WB6 countries and in the EU on the state of play with regard to cooperation of WB6 countries with the EU Fundamental Rights Agency. WB6 countries’ access to and support by this agency would support them to implement reforms in the area of fundamental rights, which is part of first cluster, on Fundamentals (respectively chapter 23, on judiciary and fundamental rights), a cluster that is the to be opened and the last to be closed in membership negotiations. Second, this policy brief also seeks to shape the public discourse in the region on the EU integration process. Third, since only half of WB6 countries are observer members of the FRA (Albania, Morth Macedonia, and Serbia), we seek to support the establishment of cooperation with FRA of the three remaining WB6 countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Montenegro). We seek to do so through policy advocacy and by promoting policy dialogue, including between governments and civil society organisations in the region. This policy brief contains two sections. The first section focuses on the FRA, namely its mandate and mission, the legal basis governing its functioning, as well as its structures, including specific instruments it has at its disposal to exercise its mandate and serve its mission. The second section explores the state of play regarding cooperation between WB6 countries and the FRA. This section also illustrates how one of the main FRA mechanisms – the annual Fundamental Rights Report – functions in practice by providing an overview of main findings of this report on the three FRA MSs from the WB in the last three years (2023-2025). This policy brief concludes with a list of conclusions and recommendations.