A number of recent studies suggest that EU conditionality is a weak mechanism for democracy promotion to third countries if EU does not offer the reward of membership. EU democratic conditionality has been criticized for many shortcomings even in the context of enlargement, especially for unclear demands, vague benchmarking, moving targets, and politicized decision-making. Present thesis discusses whether the view that conditionality has exhausted its potential for democracy promotion still holds true in one country of Eastern Partnership, Moldova. The EU explicitly offers only carrots short of membership. I find that, among these, visa free regime is the most rewarding. But while visa liberalization coupled with tactics of "half opened, half closed doors" seems potent enough to drive democratic change and consolidation, it is evident that EU did little to address the shortcomings of democratic conditionality of 2004-2007 enlargement. The pattern of ill specified demands and unclear benchmarking perpetuates and is a major source of disappointment.

The aim of this paper is to examine Serbia’s democratic consolidation in the judiciary and public and state administration, as well as the  role of European Union and EU conditionality in this process. This paper discusses the democratic consolidation in the judiciary and public and state administration of Serbia between the years 2000 and 2010, the role of the EU in this process, and the effects of EU conditionality in these two areas. The theories applied are Linz’s theory of inter-relating arenas of consolidated democracies, and Whitehead’s international dimensions of democratisation. This paper is based on the method of qualitative study and through extensive reading and research, it has come to the conclusion that the judiciary and public and state administration between 2000 and 2010 have seen some improvement. However, democratic progress has been very slow due to remains from Slobodan Milosevic’s regime and communism. The EU, as one of the major actors in the region, has through various projects, agreements, cooperation, and conditionality, brought about improvements in the judiciary and public and state administration. Yet, EU involvement and conditionality have not had great democratic effects; they have been significantly slowed down by inefficiency, low professionalism and corruption.

European Politics and Society Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Programme MA Thesis Attitudes towards European Integration in the Western Balkans: Euroscepticism and Europhilia in North Macedonia Maria Paschalina Dimopoulou Abstract The progress in the integration of EU candidate member states is determined by the level of democratization they have achieved, the level of success in the transition to market economy, the rule of law development and the ability to fulfill the conditions obligatory for member states. The attitudes towards the prospect of membership range from fervent enthusiasm to severe skepticism, depending on the length of the process, the success or lack thereof in the institutional transformation, the compatibility of the European values with traditional norms and region-specific reasons. There have been many studies focusing on the Central and East European former candidate states, while contemporary research on the Western Balkan region is rather focused on the EU's enlargement fatigue and conditionality failure. This thesis attempts to examine the role of domestic media of a candidate state in shaping the public opinion and the possible role of the political parties using the media to project their agendas on integration. The case study of North Macedonia proves the positive connection...

This diploma thesis examines with the Dutch attitude towards enlargement of the European Union. In Netherlands the EU enlargement is a politically sensitive issue. Dutch foreign policy is traditionally closely connected with the concept of "merchant and the vicar", reflecting both values of the society and national interests. Interestingly the attitude of the government, reflecting the public opinion, is much more conservative compared to other member states and strictly support the democratic conditionality as the core strategy of the EU to induce candidate states to comply with its human rights and democracy standards. Netherlands gives also special value to the need to give particular regards to the current absorption capacity of EU. The main purpose of the thesis is to evaluate to what extent is the official attitude of the Dutch government towards enlargement shaped by either interests or values of the society as a whole. I put the current Dutch attitude in the context of the current development in Serbia, as the most significant candidate state form the region of Western Balkans and Iceland. The thesis analyses two very similar cases: the cooperation with the ICTY in Hague and the Icesave dispute. Netherlands has long and persistently blocked the accession negotiations with Iceland and...