Gradual Integration of the Six Western Balkans Countries (WB6) in the European Union: FDI Screening Contact Points Network and Expert Group

Phased accession to the European Union (EU) – a pillar of the EU enhanced accession methodology, launched in 2020 – is attracting more and more attention in the six Western Balkans countries (WB6): Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia. This approach brings added value to the reform processes in these countries as it allows the EU to support them 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 their 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 similar institutional bodies are typical such mechanisms. 

They are specialised EU-level institutions that drive, jointly with the European Commission (EC) – which also conducts membership negotiations with them – the development of the EU acquis in their policy areas through 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. The Kosovar Centre for Security Studies has been working extensively to support this reform process through extensive policy research. We have also been doing so through advocacy and by promoting and facilitating policy dialogue across the region and with EU actors on this approach, in cooperation with COSs in other WB6 countries. Building on our work on alignment with the EU Regulation on Screening of Foreign Direct Investments, we have prepared the present policy brief on integration of WB6 in two EU bodies: the FDI Screening Contact Points Network and the FDI Screening Expert Group. 

The purpose of this policy paper is to inform key stakeholders in WB6 on the role of these bodies in the EU-wide system of FDI screening and their importance in support of the ongoing reforms being pursued by these countries in this specific area. It also seeks to shape the public discourse in the region on the EU integration process. Third, we seek to support implementation of reforms, through policy advocacy and by promoting policy dialogue across the region. This policy paper consists of three sections. The first two sections focus on the mandate and functioning of the Contact Points Network and the Expert Group, respectively. The third section discusses integration of WB6 into these bodies. Since all WB6 countries have yet to establish their national FDI screening mechanisms, this section discusses the institutions in each of them that would be appropriate, based on their legal mandates and internal structures, to be engaged in cooperation with and integration into these EU bodies in the future. The policy brief ends with main conclusions outlining directions of reforms in the WB6.