The impact of the European Union membership on human development progress of candidate countries: Albania and Serbia

The European Union (EU) membership process is one of the main factors shaping the reform process and evolution of institutions in the Western Balkan countries. Following the end of the conflicts in the region in the 1990s, the EU membership process started for the countries in the region. The major question of the thesis concerns how the Western Balkan countries' economic and political institutions, which are also the major targets of the EU membership conditionality driven reform process, have developed and to what extent the reform process in these institutions relate to the human development in these countries. For this purpose, the literature on the institutional economics school is reviewed and the indicators related to the economic and political institutions of the Western Balkan countries are identified and demonstrated by years. Further, the progress in the human development index during these countries institituional reform process is also presented. In light of the observed difference in human development index values among the EU candidate countries' variance in reform process, Albania and Serbia are chosen for case study to examine the major question of the thesis. The findings of the study indicate that the EU's key priorities for full membership coincide particularly with the quality of institutions and democracy emphasized by the institutionalist economics. This thesis concludes that the reason for the difference in the progress of Albania and Serbia in terms of human development approach during the membership process is international integration.