Balkan reform vital for EU entry - 2

The eventful Balkan spring of 2008 saw Kosovo peacefully gain independence, pro-European forces in Serbia trump the isolationist nationalist opposition in two consecutive elections, and all countries except Kosovo engage in stabilisation and association agreements with the EU. Some viewed these developments as evidence that the western Balkans were now irrevocably set on the path to Europe, and that the aggressive nationalism of the 1990s was a thing of the past. But the road to Brussels still has many pitfalls, and much depends on the strategy the EU adopts.