The economic transformation of West Balkans in the stabilisation and association process with the European Union

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the European Union had made the decision to add the old countries of Eastern Bloc in its structure. However, these countries were not ready for full membership in the political and economic aspects. The instability experienced in this region was also directly concerned all European countries not just this region,. So it was needed to find a solution to the instabilities in the region. The European Union began to implement some policies to stabilize the region. Regional Approach one of the first of these policies, identified criteria and conditions that must be fulfilled for the development of bilateral relations including the financial assistance, trade-economic cooperation and agreements. The specified conditions could not be fulfilled successfully in the concerned countries. Therefore, the European Union has adopted a new policy named "Stabilisation and Association Process" (SAP) to accelerate the reform process for the Western Balkans in 1999. Each country signed a Stabilisation and Association Agreement in different time frames. The purpose of this study is to analyze how was affected the economic transformation process of the Western Balkans from "Stabilisation and Association Process" policies. The changes in the macroeconomic indicators of these countries before and after the economic transformation process was investigated by comparative analysis. As a result, it could be said that after the Stabilisation and Association Process in the six states examined in the light of macroeconomic indicators (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia) an economic transformation occured.