Changes in the narratives of Europeanization. Reviewing the impact of the union before the crisis

The original idea for this special issue of Südosteuropa was mooted back in the summer of 2014, when the fi rst fi ssures began to appear in the approach of the European Union (EU) towards its candidate countries in the Balkans. Over the time we have been soliciting, then working on the papers and going through the revision process, many events took place in the EU, its candidate countries, and in the neighbourhood. The political crisis in Ukraine has turned into fullscale civil war; anxieties over the prospect of entry into the European Union have given space to pessimism about the general prospects of the once indivisible EU; talk of new rounds of accession has gradually become more and more muted. Also, the referendum on the UK’s membership in the EU has raised the spectre of other member-states turning their backs on the EU’s closer geopolitical and economic integration. And, most recently, the foiled coup d’état in Turkey has been taken as a mandate for a top-down reshaping of domestic institutions in that country, with consequences that remain uncertain. All these political developments question the role and indeed the ability of the EU to bring about change in its member, candidate, and neighbouring states that would meet the expectations of these countries’ citizenries. What is more, these changes in the political dynamics across the wider Europe urge us to rethink our expectations of the Europeanization process, about its implications for its member and candidate states, and not least about the very basis of the normative framework undergirding the EU. Two years ago, my fellow authors and I were already pessimistic about the timeline for the Western Balkan states’ accession to the EU. At that time, JeanClaude Juncker had just spelt out that there would be no further enlargement during his term as the head of the EU Commission, and it seemed to many of our critics that we were simply toeing the line of European bureaucrats too Südosteuropa 65 (2017), no. 1, pp. 1-9