The EU's enlargement policy with regard to the Western Balkan countries is in tension with the necessary internal reforms. Therefore, the promise of admission contrasts with the slow realisation of this promise. The dilemma results less from the Western Balkan countries' readiness for accession...

In the new member states of the EU which have not yet adopted the euro, previous adoption strategies have come under scrutiny. The spillovers and contagion from the global financial crisis revealed a new threat to the countries' real convergence goal, namely considerable vulnerability to the...