20 May 2026
Balancing the Edge: Advancing the energy transition and rule of law on the Western Balkans’ path to EU accession
Country Western Balkans
Date 6 October 2025
Author Mirko Popovic and Jovan Rajic
Publisher Renewables and Environmental Regulatory Institute (RERI) (Serbia)
In this memo, we see that the Western Balkans face a decisive moment in Europe’s climate transition, highly exposed to climate risks yet heavily reliant on coal and hindered by weak governance and fragmented policies. Gaps in implementation and enforcement undermine health, trust, and the credibility of reform, while the EU’s pursuit of critical raw materials sometimes overshadows environmental and rule-of-law safeguards. Civil society remains essential for accountability but operates under shrinking space and limited resources. To strengthen the transition, governments must set annual GHG targets, define coal phase-out dates, and enhance judicial, regulatory, and anti-corruption mechanisms. Public participation and local energy initiatives should be institutionalized, and regional dispute mechanisms improved. The EU should enforce binding legal obligations and rule-of-law indicators, treating emission reduction and pollution prevention as citizens’ rights thus making legal accountability central to a just, rights-based energy transition in the Western Balkans.
Click here to get more info about this projectMore Publications On This Thematic Area
See More
20 May 2026
Challenges to the integration of the Western Balkans into European Union supply chains
Two decades of economic integration between the Western Balkans and the EU have delivered meaningful gains,…
20 May 2026
Why Credible EU Membership Matters: How to Sequence Integration and Accession in Ukraine and the Western Balkans
This IAI Brief examines how the EU can maintain the transformative power of enlargement by strategically…
20 May 2026
