Projections of Rational Choice Theory on European Union and the Balkan Member States Relationship : Principal-Agent Approach, Support for Analysis

The European Union has grown both terms of size, scope, impact on Member States and in European Union competencies, in particular since the 1990s with the exponential growth in number of members - from 12 to 15 to 25 now 27 and how many more? - with the completion of the Single Market and the Single Currency. The goal of this paper is to present and analyze the relationship between the EU and the Balkan Member States in the spirit of rational choice, focusing on principal-agent approach. Therefore, the objectives of the paper refer to: a brief overview on the rational choice theory and on the principal-agent model, an investigation on the motivations that lead principals (Member States) to delegate powers and confer authority to agents (supranational institutions of the European Union), a research on using this model in order to design an EU policy. For achieving the aims of the actual paper we have used the theoretical and analytical framework, described by various scholars, namely, M. Pollack, H. Kassim, A. Menon, and the analysis of rational choice assumptions