MAYNOOTH, IRELAND – Despite its many woes, the European Union remains a lodestar for poorer states outside its borders. Indeed, the gravitational pull of the EU’s enlargement process has been the most important factor in the reconstitution of economic, political, and civic life in the western Balkans since the end of the post-Yugoslav wars of the 1990’s.
梅努斯，爱尔兰—尽管乱象丛生，但欧盟仍是欧盟外穷国的指路明灯。事实上，欧盟扩容过程的引力作用乃是巴尔干半岛西部自20世纪90年代后南斯拉夫战争结束以来实现经济、政治和公民生活复兴的最重要因素。