Deepening EU–Western Balkans Economic Integration: Scope and Economic Gains

Lev Ratnovski

No 2026/196, IMF Working Papers from International Monetary Fund

Abstract: The paper examines opportunities for deeper economic integration between the EU and the Western Balkans and assesses their potential economic impact. It documents key non-tariff barriers to Western Balkan–EU industrial goods trade—covering regulatory, customs, and border-logistics frictions—amounting to around 8–14 percent ad valorem equivalent. Reducing these barriers, alongside deeper agri-food and services integration, could generate substantial gains, allowing the Western Balkans to capture roughly one-quarter to one-half of the economic benefits of full EU membership while supporting EU objectives related to nearshoring, supply-chain resilience, regional integration, and connectivity.

Keywords: European Union; Western Balkans; Economic Integration; Non-Tariff Barriers; Single Market; EU Enlargement; Trade Facilitation; Global Value Chains (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24
Date: 2026-09-18
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eec
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.imf.org/en/publications/longres?sk=579390 (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 404 Not Found

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2026/196

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/pubs/ord_info.htm

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IMF Working Papers from International Monetary Fund International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC USA. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Akshay Modi ().