Josip Glaurdic

Mr. Glaurdic will trace the interaction between the development of the EU s foreign policy mechanisms and its involvement in the Balkans from the time of Yugoslav dissolution to the Stabilization and Association Process currently underway. Although a great number of international events helped shape the development of the EUs non-economic mechanisms of international influence, the Union s Balkan experience have arguably had the most profound impact on its vision of Europe s role as a cohesive international actor. Mr. Glaurdic contends that despite all the weaknesses the EU exhibited in the Balkans and the resulting doubts about the prospect for greater integration of European foreign and security policies, the case of the former Yugoslavia demonstrated that the EU needs a common foreign policy, and that the organization is capable of - however slowly - learning from its mistakes, adjusting its policies, and growing into its own vision charted in Maastricht.