Functioning of democratic institutions: Identifying Inconsistencies in the 2022 European Commission’s Annual Reports for WB6

The functioning of democratic institutions represents one of the key prerequisites for a country to join the EU. This is emphasised by the fact that this area has been included in the fundamentals chapter in the revised enlargement methodology of the EU, alongside the most important chapters in negotiations such as rule of law, freedom of media, fight against corruption and organised crime, public procurement, economic criteria and public administration reform.

European Policy Centre (CEP) analysed the Commission’s reports for six Western Balkans countries with the aim to map key elements of these reports under the functioning of democratic institutions area. Selected elements and their coverage for different countries in the 20222 EC reports are displayed comparatively in the infographic below. For a more detailed analysis, please refer to the following publication.