2001 – 2005
The research topic is the analysis of necessary conditions which need to be met by Republic of Serbia in order to start the process of joining the European Union’s member states. This constitutes a radical change of economic system, the procedures in functioning of democratic institutions and public administration, market opening, changing and adapting existing laws in line with the European Union and Euro-Atlantic military alliance, and so on. Our research aims to incorporate a multidisciplinary approach and analyze the key segments of the process. In this respect the project will provide researsh results’ synthesis of functioning of a series of inter-related mechanisms and institutions in Serbia, and a number of recommendations to accelerate the accession process.
Research content
The research mainly deals with the conditions of accession to the EU adopted by the European Council in Copenhagen, with Serbia in a specifi focus:
1) The assessment of conditions’ stability that ensure democracy, the rule of law, respect for human rights and minority rights;
2) The state of the current market economy and the necessary measures for its greater efficiency;
3) Analysis of the domestic economy’s ability to withstand the pressure of the EU common market and the possibility of a common regional market in the Balkans;
4) The ability of the federal government to fulfill the obligations arising from membership, including the implementation of the aims of political, economic and monetary union.
These issues are elaborated in three main segments:
a) Political aspects – Serbia’s integration into Euro-Atlantic institutions, the question of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia’s f unctionality, the institutional capacity of legislative bodies for the integration processes;
b) The legal aspects – the domain of human and minority rights, the process of legal harmonization and building national institutions for the rule of law;
c) The economic aspect – the process of economic transformation and the establishment of a free market, labor market and social consensus.
The aim of the research
1) Analysis of institutional capacity of political, legal, economic and security institutions (parliament, legislation, economic, monetary and military institutions) which are key actors in the process of European integration;
2) Analysis of political and economic situation in the Western Balkans, as an important factor of integration processes;
3) Analysis of structural changes in the scope of democracy, human and minority rights, media freedom, decentralization and civil society development, etc. The study of the phenomenon of culture, confessional tolerance and possibility of building a multicultural community standards of the most developed EU countries.