In EU member states, businesses are skeptical of moving production to the
EU neighborhood, and governments are scratching their heads as to how
to ensure stability and friendly investor relations there. Yes, the EU has developed
liberal trade relations with the countries of the Western Balkans
and Eastern Europe as preparation for their eventual accession to the bloc.
Yet this liberalization is evidently not enough of a carrot to incentivize big
reforms or foreign policy alignment that would mark them out as “friends”
of the EU. If the EU cannot practice “friendshoring” in countries that are
close neighbors and where its leaders want to engage, where can it?…
Authors: Roderick Parkes, Director of the Research Institute; Head of the Alfred von Oppenheim Center for the Future of Europe, DGAP; Zoran Nechev: DGAP, Associate Fellow, Alfred von Oppenheim Center for the Future of Europe, DGAP; Richard Grieveson: Deputy Director, Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw)
This article has originally been published on the DGAP website.
